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Field Marshal Earl Kitchener. 
Late Secretary of State for War. 



EARL KITCHENER 
and the GREAT WAR 



The Heroic Career of One Whose 

Memory Will Live as Long as 

The British Empire 

Including 

A Comprehensive Story of the Battles and 
Great Events of the World War 



By 

CAPTAIN LOGAN HOWARD-SMITH 

with Special Chapters by 

THOMAS F. TRUSLER, 

Third Brigade Canadian Artillery 
and 

VISCOUNT JAMES BRYCE 



Profusely Illustrated with Photographs, 
Maps and Drawings 



'HIS- 



Copyright, 1916, by 
L. T. Myers 




Printed and Boimd at 

THE INTERNATIONAL PRESS 

Pbiladblphia, Pa. 



•CI.A445Uuy 



INTRODUCTION 

THE DEFENSE of Home and Country has always 
called forth the noblest instincts in man. Patriotism 
is a magnet that draws men to planes of heroic en- 
deavor, of consummate devotion to principle, where 
the sacrifice of physical comfort is nothing, and the 
giving up of life itself a trifle. 

The moments of supreme courage, effort, and achieve- 
ment in the life of man have been when he has 
shouldered arms and faced the invader and persecutor. 

War is a horrible and hateful thing; at best it is a 
terrible, lamentable necessity. But it does not make 
cowards of brave and honest men; it does frequently 
inspire the timid and hesitating with the fire of valor 
and resolution to a degree undreamed of. 

So it is that in war we find stories of intrepidity, 
and deeds palpitating with heroism, such as only the 
crises of supreme danger and necessity could inspire; 
and we treasure these stories as part of the priceless 
heritage of humanity, that children and grandchildren 
may remember the valor of their sires; we tell and 
retell them, we preserve them in the volumes of the 
historian, on the canvas of the artist, we chisel them 
in stone, that men may remember the price paid for 
liberty and virtue. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTKR PAOa 

Introduction 5 

I. Earl Kitchener Dies a Hero's Death 11 

II. Earl Kitchener: The Supreme Military 

Organizer 22 

III. Earl Kitchener's Military Record 32 

IV. Kitchener of Khartoum 42 

V. Earl Kitchener's Human Side 57 

VI. The World's Greatest Naval Battle 61 

VII. Britain's Navy Saves Civilization 70 

VIII. Verdun: The Greatest Battle in History. 81 

IX. Fighting the Submarine 95 

X. How THE Conquest of the Air Revolution- 
ized Warfare 106 

XI. The Heroic Struggle on the Gallipoli 

Peninsula 122 

XII. The Valiant Defense of Serbia and Mon- 
tenegro 136 

XIII. The Terrible Mesopotamian Campaign .... 149 

XIV. The French Attack in the Champagne 

District 164 

XV. Italy's Part in the War 177 

XVI. The Marvelous Work of the Red Cross. . 192 

XVIL Patriotic Canada 203 

7 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTBB PAQE 

XVIII. A Crime Against Civilization: The Tragic 

Destruction of the Lusitania 214 

XIX. A Canadian's Account of the Lusitania 

Horror 226 

XX. The Heroes of the Lusitania and Their 

Heroism 230 

XXI. Canadians' Glorious Feat at Langemarck. 247 

XXII, Vivid Experiences of T. F. Trusler at 

Ypres 265 

XXIII. Canadian Heroism in the War 281 

XXIV. Woman's Part in the Great War 291 

XXV. A Battle in the Air 303 

XXVI. A March Through the Night 308 

XXVII. Deliberate and Systematic Massacre 313 

By Viscount James Bryce 

XXVIII. Pitiful Flight of a Million Women 329 

By Philip Gibbs, English Author and Journalist. 

XXIX. Facing Death in the Trenches 341 

XXX. A Vivid Picture of War 355 

XXXI. Harrowing Scenes Along the Battle Lines 362 

XXXII. What the Men in the Trenches Write 

Home 368 

XXXIII. Bombarding Undefended Cities 374 

XXXIV. Germany's Fatal War Zone 380 

XXXV. Multitudinous Tragedies at Sea 385 

XXXVI. The Terrible Distress of Poland 389 

8 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

The Ghastly Havoc Wrought by the Air 
Demons 397 

The Deadly Submarine and Its Stealthy 
Destruction 403 

The Terrible Work of Artillery in War 408 

Wholesale Death by Poisonous Gases .... 414 

"Usages of War on Land": The Official 
German Manual 422 

The Sacrifice of the Horse in Warfare . . 427 

Scourges that Follow in the Wake of 
Battle 431 

War's Repair Shop: Caring for the 
Wounded 436 



CHAPTER 

XXXVII. 



XXXVIII. 

XXXIX. 

XL. 

XLI. 

XLII. 
XLIII. 

XLIV. 



EARL KITCHENER'S LADDER OF FAME 



Bom June 24, 1850. 

Woolwich Cadet, 1868-1871. 

Lieutenant, R. E., January 4, 1871. 

Commanded Egjrptian Cavalry, 1882-84. 

Captain, January 4, 1883. 

Brevet Major, October 8, 1884. 

Nile Expedition, 1884-85. 

Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel, June 15, 1885. 

Governor of Suakim, 1886. 

Brevet Colonel, April 11, 1888. 

Adjutant-General, Egyptian Army, 1888-92. 

Soudan Campaign, 1889. 

Sirdar, 1892. 

Major-General, September 25, 1896. 

Dongola Expeditionary Force, 1896. 

Omdurman and Khartoum, 1898. 

Baron, 1898, 

Lieutenant-General, December 23, 1899. 

Chief of Staff in South Africa, 1899-1900. 

Commander-in-Chief, 1900-02. 

Viscount, 1902. 

General, Jime 1, 1902. 

Commander-in-Chief, India, 1902-09. 

Field Marshal, September 10, 1909. 

British Agent and Consul-General in Egjrpt, 1911-14. 

Earl, 1914. 

Secretary of State for War, 1914-16. 



10 




Kitchener vSaves Lieut. Conder 
AT 8afed. 

Kitchener and Bennett Burleigh 
Meet at Debbeh. 



Kitchener Stoned by Natives 
while Surveying. 

The Khalifa's Flag Bearer 
at Omdurman. 



CHAPTER I 
EARL KITCHENER DIES A HERO'S DEATH 

Britain's greatest shock — admiral jellicoe's 

REPORT ON mission AT RUSSIA's REQUEST 

SPIES BLAMED FOR CALAMITY NEWS RECEIVED 

AMID INTENSE EXCITEMENT ARMY ORDERED INTO 

MOURNING HOW LORD KITCHENER DIED 

SUNK BY A MINE LOSS OF THE HAMPSHIRE 

kitchener's PLACE IN BRITAIN'S HISTORY. 

THE NEWS received by the world on June 6, 1916, 
that Lord Kitchener, Secretary of State for War, and 
his staff were lost off the Orkney Islands the previous 
night, was the most stunning blow delivered to Great 
Britain since the beginning of the war. 

It was the second great shock which the country had 
sustained within a week. The first was the announce- 
ment of the naval battle in the North Sea in the 
form of a list of the ships lost, with virtually no 
way of ascertaining the enemy losses. The bulletin 
telling of the intimation that there was any com- 
pensation in the death of Kitchener gave the country 
even a greater shock. 

Lord Kitchener was the one outstanding personality 
whom the people talked of and believed in as a great 
man, nothwithstanding the newspaper attacks, which, 
at a former period of the war, threatened to undermine 
his popularity and the public confidence in him. 

11 



DIES A HERO'S DEATH 



ADMIRAL JELLICOE S REPORT ON THE DISASTER 

A telegram from Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, com- 
mander of the fleet, giving the bare facts, was received 
at the Admiralty on the morning following the disaster. 
The first official announcement was issued at about 




A 









Where Britain Lost Her Great Soldier and War Minister 

At the time of his death Lord Kitchener was en route to Russia, intending 
to sail around the northern coast of Russia and land at Archangel, as indicated 
by the dotted line. The star shows where his ship was sunk. 

1.30 in the afternoon. Such news, however, cannot be 
kept entirely secret even for an hour. Before noon 
rumors were spreading, and the telephones in the 
newspaper offices were busy with inquirers anxious to 
know whether this — one of the many reports circulating 
in those days of tension — had any foundation. 
12 



DIES A HERO'S DEATH 

Admiral Jellicoe's report to the Admiralty was as 
follows : 

I have to report with deep regret that His 
Majesty's ship Hampshire, Captain Herbert J. 
Savill, R. N., with Lord Kitchener and his staff 
on board, was sunk last night at about 8 p. m., 
to the west of the Orkneys, either by a mine or 
a torpedo. 

Four boats were seen by observers on shore to 
leave the ship. The wind was north-northwest 
and heavy seas were running. Patrol vessels and 
destroyers at once proceeded to the spot and a 
party was sent along the coast to search, but only 
some bodies and a capsized boat have been found 
up to the present. As the whole shore has been 
searched from the seaward, I greatly fear that there 
is little hope of there being any survivors. 

No report has yet been received from the search 
party on shore. 

H. M. S. Hampshire was on her way to Russia. 

ON MISSION AT RUSSIA'S REQUEST 

Earl Kitchener was on his way to Russia, at the 
request of the Russian Government, to discuss impor- 
tant military and financial questions with Emperor 
Nicholas, including chiefly the supply of munitions for 
Russia. He intended to land at Archangel, visit 
Petrograd, and probably go to the Russian front. 

Accompanying Earl Kitchener as his staff were Sir 
Frederick Donaldson, superintendent of the Royal 
Ordnance Factories at Woolwich and technical adviser 
to David Lloyd-George, Minister of Munitions; Hugh 

13 



DIES A HERO'S DEATH 

James O'Beirne, former councilor of the British Em- 
bassy at Petrograd and former Minister at Sofia; O. A. 
Fitzgerald, Earl Kitchener's private military secretary, 
and Brigadier-General Ellershaw. On board the 
Hampshire with the British War Secretary were also a 
number of minor officers. 

SPIES BLAMED FOR CALAMITY 

In connection with suggestion that information of 
Earl Kitchener's movements may have been conveyed 
to the Germans by spies, it is interesting to note that 
the Official Gazette, on the same night on which Lord 
Kitchener lost his life, contained an order placing new 
restrictions on passengers landing at ports in the 
Orkney Islands, and providing that thereafter no person 
might land at such ports without specific permission of 
the military authorities at Kirkwall. 

The Daily Mail gave prominence to the following 
statement : 

''Earl Kitchener's intention to go to Russia was 
known to a great many persons in London on Thursday. 
It ought not to have been so known. The news of it 
may have reached the enemy. The public mind has 
been quick to associate his death with the work of 
spies. We have every sympathy with the demand 
which comes to us from many parts of the country that 
all alien enemies who are still at large, especially those 
in high places be interned at once." 

The Morning Post, discussing the sinking of the 
Ham^pshire, said: 

''Circumstances point at espionage or treachery, and 
the country will suspect this the more owing to the 
14 



DIES A HERO'S DEATH 

singular freedom still allowed to enemy subjects in 
Great Britain." 

Naval officers expressed the opinion that the cruiser 
Hampshire must have struck a mine, as it would have 
to be an exceedingly lucky shot for a torpedo to get a 
ship with her speed and under the condition of the 
sea which was very rough. The Hampshire was an 
old boat and not fit for fleet action, but Vv^as fast 
enough for patrol and blockade work. 

When Admiral Jellicoe's report finally was issued the 
fact spread about London some time before the news- 
papers could get into the streets. There was a crowd 
about the Stock Exchange which required police re- 
serves to deal with. 

NEWS RECEIVED AMID INTENSE EXCITEMENT 

At the same time another mass of people was 
assembling about the Government offices in Whitehall. 
All the windows of the War Office had the cur- 
tains lowered. That confirmed the rumor beyond 
doubt. 

Other crowds gathered around the newspaper offices; 
when the boys came out with an armful of extras the 
people fell on them and fought for the papers. In the 
course of the afternoon the flags on all buildings were 
flown at half staff. 

There was an exciting scene at the close of the Stock 
Exchange session. 

ARMY ORDERED INTO MOURNING 

The King hurried from Windsor and sent for Premier 
Asquith when he heard the news. 

10 



DIES A HERO'S DEATH 

By the King's command the following order was 
issued to the army: 

The King has learned with profound regret of 
the disaster whereby the Secretary of State for 
War has lost his life while proceeding on a special 
mission to the Emperor of Russia. 

Field Marshal Lord Kitchener gave forty-eight 
years of distinguished service to the State, and it 
is largely due to his administrative genius and 
unwearying energy that the country has been able 
to create and place in the field the armies which 
today are upholding the traditional glories of our 
empire. Lord Kitchener will be mourned by the 
army as a great soldier who, under conditions of 
unexampled difficulty, rendered supreme and de- 
voted service both to the army and the State. 

His Majesty the King commands that the 
officers of the army shall wear mourning with their 
uniforms for the period of one week. Officers are 
to wear crepe on the left arm of uniform and of 
great-coats. 

HOW LORD KITCHENER DIED 

Leading Seaman Rogerson, one of the survivors of 
the Hampshire, has furnished the following account of 
Lord Kitchener's last moments: 

"Of those who left the ship and have survived it, I 
was the one who saw Lord Kitchener last," said 
Rogerson. ''He went down with the ship. He did 
not leave her. I saw Captain Savill help his boat's 
crew to clear away. At the same time the captain was 
calling to Lord Kitchener to come to the boat, but 
16 



DIES A HERO'S DEATH 

owing to the noise made by the wind and sea, Kitchener 
could not hear him, I think. When the explosion 
occurred, Lord Kitchener walked calmly from the 
captain's cabin, went up the ladder and on to the 
quarter-deck. 

"There I saw him walking quite collectedly and 
talking to two officers, all three wearing khaki. They 
had no overcoats on. Lord Kitchener calmly watched 
the preparations for abandoning the ship, which were 
going on in spite of the heavy sea. In a steady and 
orderly way the crew just went to stations, obeyed 
orders and did their best to get out the boats, but it 
was impossible. 

"Owing to the rough weather no boats could be 
lowered. Those that were got out were smashed up 
at once. No boats left the ship. What people on 
shore thought were boats leaving were rafts. Men 
did get into the boats as these lay in their cradles, 
thinking that as the ship went under them the boats 
would float, but the ship sank by the head and when 
she went down she turned a somersault forward, carry- 
ing down with her all the boats and those in them. 

"I do not think Lord Kitchener got into a boat. 
When I sprang to a raft he was still on the starboard 
side of the quarter-deck talking with officers. 

"Of the civilian members of his suite I saw nothing. 
I got away on one of the rafts and we had a terrible 
five hours in water so rough that the seas beat down 
on us and many men were killed by buffeting. Many 
others died from the piercing cold. I was quite numbed 
and an overpowering desire to sleep came upon us. 
To keep this away, we thumped each other on the back, 

a 17 



DIES A HERO'S DEATH 

for the man who went to sleep never woke again. 
When men died, it was just as though they were falling 
asleep. One man stood upright for five hours on a raft 
with dead lying all around him; one man died in my 
arms. 

"As we got near the shore the situation grew worse. 
The wind was blowing on-shore, the fury of the sea 
dashed the rafts against the rocks with tremendous 
force. Many were killed in this way, and one raft 
thrice overturned. I don't quite know how I got 
ashore, for all the feeling had gone out of me. We 
were very kindly treated by the people who picked us 
up. They said it was the worst storm they had had 
for years." 

SUNK BY A MINE 

An official statement of the destruction of the Hamp- 
shire contains the following account: 

''The Hampshire was proceeding along the west 
coast of the Orkneys. A heavy gale was blowing and 
seas were breaking over the ship, which necessitated 
her being partly battened down. Between 7.30 and 
7.45 p. M. the vessel struck a mine and begun at once 
to settle by the bows, heeling over to starboard before 
she finally went down about fifteen minutes later. 

''Orders were given by the captain for all hands to 
go to their established stations for abandoning ship. 
Some of the hatches were opened and the ship's com- 
pany went quickly to their stations. Efforts were 
made without success to lower some of the boats. One 
of them was broken in haK and its occupants were 
thrown into the water. 
18 



DIES A HERO'S DEATH 

''Large numbers of the crew used life-saving belts 
and waist coats, which proved effective in keeping 
them afloat. Three rafts were safely launched, and, 
with about fifty to seventy men on each, got clear. It 
was daylight up to about 11. Though rafts with these 
large numbers of men got away, in one case out of over 
seventy men aboard only six survived. The survivors 
all report that the men gradually dropped off, even 
died aboard the rafts from exhaustion and exposure 
to cold. Some of the crew must have perished in 
trying to land on the rocky coast after such a long 
exposure. Some died after landing." 

On board the Hampshire were also a number of 
minor army officers, and the cruiser carried a crew of 
between 400 and 500 men. 

At the time of the attack by a German submarine 
on the cross-channel passenger boat Sussex, several 
months previous to Lord Kitchener's death, there was 
a report in London that the Germans sought to sink 
the vessel because they had heard Lord Kitchener was 
on board. This report never was confirmed, but sur- 
vivors of that attack admitted that a ''certain high 
official" actually was on the Sussex. The identity of 
this personage was not established, but it was generally 
accepted that Lord Kitchener was the man. 

LOSS OF THE HAMPSHIRE 

The Hampshire was an armored cruiser of 10,850 
tons displacement, 450 feet long, 68}^ feet beam, 25 
feet draught, and an indicated horse-power of 21,508. 
She was launched at Elswick in 1903 and completed 
in 1905 at an estimated cost of $4,332,635. She was 

2 19 



DIES A HERO'S DEATH 

protected amidships by 6-inch armor, over the vital 
parts, which thinned down to two inches in other parts. 
Her deck was protected by armor from J^ inch to 2 
inches in thickness, and her bulkheads carried 5-inch 
armor. Her main batteries were protected by 5-inch 
armor. She carried four 7.5-inch, six 6-inch, twenty 
3-pounders and two machine guns, with two torpedo 
tubes. 

kitchener's place in Britain's history 

No doubt Lord Kitchener, who was a soldier before 
all else, met death as he would have chosen to meet it, 
in the performance of his duty to his country; but the 
disaster to the cruiser Hampshire was no less a 
tragedy of compelling horror. The great commander's 
life is but one of many sacrificed during the 
war and from the human point of view it is 
possible to count it as no more than the rest. Yet, 
however impartially pallid death may knock, he finds 
the conspicuous victim at the towers of kings rather 
than at the cottages of the poor. The loss which 
England suffered by Lord Kitchener's taking-off cannot 
be measured in words. In a sense he had fulfilled his 
destiny. It might even be said that he had begun to 
outlive his reputation. Perhaps no other man could 
have done what he did. To him is due the greater 
share of the credit for organizing the largest volunteer 
army which the world has ever seen. England was 
wretchedly unprepared in a military way for the terrible 
conflict thrust upon her. It was a staggering burden 
that Lord Kitchener had to bear. Red tape at the 
War Office, lack of munitions and equipment, strikes 
20 



DIES A HERO'S DEATH 

among laborers, raw troops ignorant of the very ele- 
ments of military science, popular ignorance of or 
indifference to the titanic nature of the conflict — no 
wonder he made mistakes, no wonder he provoked 
criticism. 

Yet the faith of his countrymen as a whole never 
wavered; and it was justified. Such an admission 
does not diminish the substantial service he rendered or 
detract from his genius. He was undeniably one of the 
first commanders of his time; and if in this war his 
duties had taken him to the field there is every reason 
to believe that he would again have revealed the 
qualities which first won him fame. No English general 
in the fighting line has yet surpassed or even equaled 
him. He had that efficiency which we have come to 
associate with German officers rather than with English. 
It was shown in his administrative work in India and 
Egypt as well as in his campaigns. Having formed his 
plans, he carried them through relentlessly, not to say 
ruthlessly. He could not excuse negligence nor forgive 
failure. He worked hard himself and expected every 
one else to do so. Duty controlled him, not sentiment. 
Such a man is bound to do great things. 



21 



CHAPTER II 

EARL KITCHENER: THE SUPREME 
MILITARY ORGANIZER 

NOMINATED BY ACCLAMATION FOR WAR MINISTER 

RAISED AN ARMY OF FIVE MILLIONS GIVE HIM 

WHAT HE WANTS THE SPLENDID BRUTE HIS 

UNIVERSAL EXPERIENCE HIS SINGLENESS OF 

PURPOSE — TASKS FOR HERCULES HIS STUPEN- 
DOUS TASK THE TRUTH ABOUT GALLIPOLI PUBLIC 

CONFIDENCE ADVERTISING FOR RECRUITS 

kitchener's EYES. 

THE INTRODUCTION of scientific method into 
warfare has not impaired the power of personaHty. 
The bigger the machine the greater must be the man 
to manage it. In the peaceful days of 1914 an effort 
was made by the government to have Earl Kitchener 
shelved by a sinecure. But when the storm broke he 
was nominated by acclamation for War Minister. He 
alone saw what must be done. He alone had the 
power to do it. Britain had at that time little 
appreciation of the magnitude of the task before 
her. People said that the war would be over by 
Christmas. Kitchener said it would begin in May. 
People said that England would have done her duty 
when she fulfilled her promise of 1911 to send 160,000 
men to France. Kitchener said millions of men would 
be needed and for three years. 
22 




a ■^: 






SUPREME MILITARY ORGANIZER 

RAISED AN ARMY OF FIVE MILLIONS 

And he got them. '^ Kitchener wants you" proved 
the most effective recruiting advertisement. Never 
before in the history of the world has a man raised 
and equipped a volunteer army of five million men. 
Probably no one will ever have to do it again, so both 
pacifists and militarists hope, though with different 
reasons in mind. The country called him and he 
called the country. Both responded nobly. What 
was at first sneered at as '^Kitchener's mob" soon 
came to be respected as '^ Kitchener's army." Troops 
can be extemporized. Generals have to be trained. 
Lord Kitchener was criticized — and justly — for failing 
to provide the quantity and kind of ammunition needed 
by modern warfare, and for neglecting to organize in 
the factory as well as in the field. But this came 
from attempting to do too much by himself, and can- 
not detract from his great achievements. He was 
later relieved of part of his multifarious duties and it 
was expected that the responsibility of his ofiSce would 
before many months have been divided or devolved 
upon another. But death came to him, as doubtless 
he would have wished to have it come, in the path 
of duty and in the height of his power and reputation. 
England suffered an irreparable loss, but Kitchener's 
life came to a noble and appropriate close. His grave 
is deeper than that any dug by man, and, like some 
ancient king, two hundred of his warriors are buried 
in his tomb. No coffin could be found for him more 
fitting than a British cruiser, for the enumeration of 
his manly qualities reads like the catalog of ships. 
''Indefatigable," "Indomitable," "Inflexible," "Im- 

23 



SUPREME MILITARY ORGANIZER 

placable," ^'Invincible;" these are the adjectives his 
biographers use in describing his character. 

GIVE HIM WHAT HE WANTS ! 

England has always been a believer in the man idea. 
The Anglo-Saxons are individualists. It was the man 
idea that made the Empire: Drake against Spain; 
Clive in India; Nelson and Wellington in the Napo- 
leonic Wars. In the great crisis of the World War the 
man was Kitchener. He was not appointed Secretary 
of State for War; he was elected by the unanimous 
voice of a people. The Liberal Government had to 
take him, whether or no. Perhaps there was a feeling 
in Liberal councils that the British people had set an 
elephant, an immense old tusker, in a Cabinet chair. 

''Give him what he wants! Do as he says!" cried 
the British pubHc. "We will go on with business as 
usual. He will win." 

Yet with every class of the population — ^from news- 
man to millionaire newspaper owner, stevedore to 
steamship capitalist, publican to bishop, day laborer 
to peer, chorus girl to duchess — for Kitchener, what 
strange things one heard about the man! He was 
vain; he was selfish; a brute: a heartless machine that 
ruthlessly broke anyone who got in the way of his 
ambitions. 

THE SPLENDID BRUTE 

He was the most advertised of Englishmen — without 
ever having played to the gallery; he had received more 
honors than any Englishman — without ever asking for 
one. If you inquired which was the bigger man, 
24 



SUPREME MILITARY ORGANIZER 

Roberts or Kitchener, an Englishman would tell you 
what a fine, lovable old soldier Roberts was; how he 
expressed the national ideal of a soldier; and then he 
would say: Kitchener! There were countless anec- 
dotes about Roberts; an atmosphere of characteristic 
sayings and incidents enveloped him; but when you 
tried to learn something about Kitchener you found 
only bare records of accomplishment. The corre- 
spondents who followed him on campaigns sounded his 
praises in the way of men who literally have to admire 
their subject. 

Work, work, w^ork — that made him the man; work, 
work, work for forty years, all spent away from Eng- 
land. He never finished a job for the Empire but 
another was waiting for him, and always he was ready 
to tackle it. For the last twenty years he invariably 
had the biggest one going, and all his life he had never 
failed. His choice was always for a task of such 
magnitude as to make all other tasks seem insignificant. 
He had first-hand knowledge of every part of the 
Empire. Each problem was a problem that he knew. 

On that day in August, 1914, when the nation called 
him to authority, he at least knew what England was 
up against. Only a few Englishmen partly recognized 
it — the general public not at all. For the German 
system had been among his studies. He understood the 
organized power and spirit of Germany. From the 
first he said that the war would be long; that it would 
tax all of England's strength. He must be allowed to 
lay his foundations with that end in view. Meanwhile, 
the optimistic British public hung out ''Business as 
Usual" signs in the shop wdndows and stuck flags on the 

25 



SUPREME MILITARY ORGANIZER 

map to show the progress of the ''Russian steam roller" 
toward Berlin. With that optimistic public on one 
side and Kitchener on the other, Asquith was in a 
difficult position, the people mistaking optimism for 
power and Kitchener being untrained in the ways of 
home politics. 

TASKS FOR HERCULES 

When he took office Kitchener found that England, 
by denuding her garrisons at home, could put 80,000 
men on the Continent to assist France in stalling the 
onslaught of the German millions. As for South Africa, 
there was not a single regular soldier there when De 
Wet took the field in rebellion. The British army 
was an army for doing the police work of an empire. 
A French chief of staff once said that it had been 
demoralized by its successes in little wars. If the 
regulars were not equal to the task in any little war, 
then volunteers were called for. 

In Germany and France, where practically every 
able-bodied man of all classes serves his two and three 
years, there is plentiful material in the ranks to fill gaps 
caused by death among officers. But it is difficult 
to make an officer out of Tommy Atkins, the British 
regular private. He is a private by training and 
nature, with occasional exceptions. And all that 
Kitchener had to start with in making an army of 
millions was this nucleus, this regular army. 

HIS STUPENDOUS TASK 

When he knew that he would require two millions, 
perhaps three, Kitchener started in with a call for a 
26 



SUPREME MILITARY ORGANIZER 

hundred thousand. Then he asked for a second hun- 
dred thousand; and as soon as he was able to care for 
the recruits he set the mark at a milhon. Every recruit 
was a civilian who had to be trained and armed. 
Artillery, engineers, signal corps — all had to be created 
out of the raw. Rifle plants had to be built, officers and 
drill masters trained. 

The South African experience had not cleared away 
all the cobwebs of red tape in the War Office. Nowhere 
do these cobwebs gather so rapidly as in a small regular 
army which is under sharp civilian control, always 
asking for audits and explanations. The forms were 
tho^e for that kind of army. They did not contemplate 
a force of millions. Kitchener had to be the architect 
of a new house; he had to begin with its foundations, 
while the house of Germany was a completed edifice. 

Meanwhile, Sir John French did not want to spare 
any of his good officers to drill the new army. His 
was the pressing need of the mopient. He was hanging 
on tooth and nail and amazing the Germans with how 
he did it. His casualties among officers were appalling. 
New ones must be sent out to fill their places. The 
gaps in shattered regiments had to be filled with fresh 
recruits. Before rifles and guns could be furnished to 
the new army, the army in France must be supplied. 
The wastage in rifles, as in everything else, surpassed 
all calculations. That army in Flanders was a great 
mouth ever hungry for officers, men, munitions, and 
supplies: which had to be put on a train, then on a 
steamer, and again on a train, before they reached 
their destination. 

When spring came what had Kitchener accom- 

27 



SUPREME MILITARY ORGANIZER 

plished? From India he had brought the Indian troops 
and put these children of the sun through a winter in 
the trenches in a climate which alone ought to have 
finished them. He had garrisoned India with Terri- 
torials and brought the British Indian regulars to 
France. The threatened Turkish invasion of Egypt 
had been turned into a farce. The Persian Gulf 
expedition was holding its own. 

But the British public, which took the Empire for 
granted, had its eyes focused on the Continent. With 
the spring it had expected a turn of the tide, and 
instead the Germans developed a fever of fresh attacks. 
In place of the British taking the offengive, the Germans 
surprised the British and French with clouds of asphyx- 
iating gas and took a considerable sector of trenches. 

PUBLIC CONFIDENCE 

''Business as Usual" signs disappeared from the 
windows. England might not yet be awake, but she 
had one eye open wide enough to see that nothing was 
as usual. A wave of pessimism and restlessness was 
sweeping through the public mind which no censorship 
could reach. 

In answer, all that we have tried to express of 
Kitchener's career flamed up out of British memory 
in a way which showed that the British are not too 
phlegmatic for a spasm of anger. You did not have to 
wait on the evening editions to learn how outraged 
public opinion was. You knew it before a single 
evening edition was out; you felt it in the very air. 
Kitchener must not go. If he needed help, then 
give him help. 
28 



SUPREME MILITARY ORGANIZER 

ADVERTISING FOR RECRUITS 

No one of the outside public can escape the results 
of his devotion to specialization along one hne which is 
fairly illustrative. The recruiting campaign was under 
his personal direction. Even his most violent press 




One op Lokd Kitchener's Many Posters That Covered Blank Wall 

Space — Public and Private — Which Had Never Been 

Used for Bill-Posting Before 



enemies admit that he knew how to advertise. As he 
had to advertise for recruits, he called in the best 
advertising experts in London and started the greatest 
advertising campaign in all history. 

On every blank space, on walls of public and private 
buildings never covered by an official notice before, 

29 



SUPREME MILITARY ORGANIZER 

around the base of the Nelson Monument in Trafalgar 
Square, under the windows of exclusive clubs, at the 
very doors of churches, and on every taxicab, in 
enormous red and blue letters across London bridges, in 
little posters and big; in short sentences of cajolery, 
shaming the ''slackers," arousing racial pride; in 
posters of the best lithographic art picturing lonely 
soldiers on the firing line calling for help, and pros- 
trate women and children under the Prussian heel — 
whether the eye looked to right or left, front or rear, 
it could not escape Kitchener's call for men for 
Kitchener's army. The public came to look for the 
new posters, and there seemed to be always room for 
one more. The last one was a message in facsimile 
as written by Kitchener calling for another hundred 
thousand men. Groups gathered around in the first 
day that it appeared on the boardings. His own 
handwriting! He wrote that himself. Lord Kitchener 
did! It was almost like getting a personal letter from 
him. The interest, even the awe, of these groups 
suggested that the name of Kitchener had become 
almost as much of a fetish with the English as with the 
Egyptian masses. Perhaps Kitchener, who has been 
the bugbear of so many journalists was something of a 
journalist himself! 

kitchener's eyes 

Few- worded as Kitchener seemed in his daily routine, 
when it pleased him he would talk at length — freely, 
affably, across a desk which was never littered with 
papers — as if he had all the time in the world to 
spare. Then the listener heard great plans unfolded. 
30 



p. -^ p 




SUPREME MILITARY ORGANIZER 

Kitchener might be rehearsing them in his own mind, 
for it was difficult to conceive of him as wasting time. 
It was his eyes that held attention: clear, blue, 
compelling eyes, capable of many changes of expression, 
but always with command in them, and he was 
supremely the one who knew how to command. Cer- 
tainly he was a phenomenal man — the strong man 
incarnate. If the world were full of Kitcheners, we 
should have no time to play; but, when so few of us 
go to the hospitals from overwork, that sort of a driver 
may be pretty useful in a time of national emergency. 



31 



CHAPTER III 
EARL KITCHENER'S MILITARY RECORD 

TO EGYPT AT HIS OWN REQUEST DERVISH BUL- 
LET PIERCED HIS JAW SIRDAR AT FORTY ESTAB- 
LISHED ORDER IN EGYPT CALLED TO BOER WAR 

RAISED TO A VISCOUNT COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 

OF INDIA CONSUL-GENERAL TO EGYPT MADE AN 

EARL HIS CALL TO SERVICE IN THE GREAT WAR 

— HIS PLACE IN HISTORY. 

EARL KITCHENER was one of Britain's self-made 
men. Without any great family connections he rose 
slowly but steadily through the lesser grades until he 
reached the peerage and won the baton of a field 
marshal of England. Born June 24, 1850, he would 
have been sixty-six years old on the twenty-fourth of 
the month in which he died. He was a bachelor 
and, whether deserved or not, had the reputation of 
being a woman hater. 

Very little is known of the boyhood of Kitchener. 
He was just an ordinary British boy, very silent, very 
positive in his opinions and always the master of him- 
self. He was born to the army and in his late teens 
entered the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. 
He was commissioned a lieutenant of the Royal 
Engineers in January, 1871. His actual British service 
may be said to have begun with the Woolwich finals, 
but as a matter of fact his fighting career began in 1870, 
when he went to France and fought under the Tricolor 
32 



KITCHENER'S MILITARY RECORD 

against Germany, and as his career began so it ended, 
as a comrade in arms of the French. 

The first few years of his service were hard working 
years, but uneventful. He was sent to Palestine on 
behalf of the Palestine exploration fund, and sub- 
sequently the British Government sent him to Cyprus 
to make a map of that island and also for a time to 
serve as British Vice-Consul at Erzerum in Turkey. 
In 1882 Kitchener asked for an Egyptian detail, and 
the granting of that request sent him on his way to 
fame and power. 

One of his first services in Egypt was as intelligence 
officer attached to Sir Robert Stewart's desert column, 
organized for the relief of General Gordon, who was 
then practically a prisoner at Khartoum. This expedi- 
tion, known in military history as the Gordon Relief 
Expedition, proved a disastrous fiasco, and Kitchener 
took deeply to heart the costly lessons, due to a lack 
of transportation facihties and means of intelligence, 
and when, a few years later, he himself organized and 
led a similar expedition the mistakes of the Stewart 
venture were not to be repeated. 

DERVISH BULLET PIERCED HIS JAW 

In the next year Kitchener was engaged in innumer- 
able fights and raids against the dervishes or Mahdists 
of southern Egjrpt. He had now become known in the 
service as one of the most capable of the younger 
oflScers, a strict disciplinarian and a hard and stubborn 
fighter. In 1886 he was appointed Governor of the 
Red Sea territories, and the final overthrow of Osman 
Digna at Tamai occurred in his tenure of that oflftce. 

B 33 



KITCHENER'S MILITARY RECORD 

In 1887 and 1888 Kitchener was in command at 
Suakim, and the most important enterprise he directed 
in these years was the attack on Osman Digna at 
Handud, an enterprise that was not a complete success, 
but from which he was able to extricate himself with 
credit and without loss of prestige. Before the end of 
1888, however, he got his revenge for that half failure, 
when he led a brigade of Soudanese troops over the 
enemy trenches at Gemaizeh. In that campaign Kitch- 
ener was severely wounded, a bullet piercing his jaw. 

SIRDAR AT FORTY 

Kitchener returned to Egypt in 1888 and was made 
adjutant-general. The ten years of activity that 
followed, during which he conducted the Soudan 
Campaign of 1889, was made Sirdar (commander-in 
chief of the Anglo-Egyptian forces) in 1892, major- 
general in 1896, and led the Dongola Expeditionary 
force in 1896, culminating in the capture of Omdurman 
and Khartoum in 1898, are of such major importance, 
and added so greatly to Kitchener's laurels, that they 
will be treated at length in a separate chapter. 

MADE A BARON 

With the capture of Khartoum, which meant the 
re-establishment of British possession of the upper 
reaches of the Nile, Kitchener became a figure of world- 
wide interest and a great popular hero in England. ; 

Mahdism had had its origin in just discontent over 
the oppressive rule of Egypt in the Soudan. But 
having dominated the whole of that country, Mahdism 
degenerated in its turn into a cruel and bloody despotism 
34 



KITCHENER'S MILITARY RECORD 

and the rout of the Khahfa's forces by Kitchener with 
his Anglo-Egyptian army meant the dehverance of 
these inhabitants of that region who desired to go 
about their business in peace. 

CALLED TO BOER WAR 

On Kitchener's return to Egypt with the title of 
Governor-General of the Soudan, he set himself energet- 
ically to the work of civiHzing the conquered territory. 
But suddenly, owing to the exigencies of the situation 
in South Africa, he was called away from the land in 
which he had won his fame to join Lord Roberts as 
chief of the staff. 

Kitchener threw himself into his South African duties 
with his accustomed energy, and if he did not win the 
popular acclamation which greeted his work in Egypt, 
he performed magnificent work both in administration 
and in the field. 

RAISED TO A VISCOUNT 

It is noteworthy that after he had resigned the 
commission of Commander-in-Chief into Kitchener's 
hands in 1900, Lord Roberts publicly declared that he 
had implicit confidence in his successor's judgment and 
skill, and affirmed that no one could have labored more 
incessantly or in a more self-effacing manner than Lord 
Kitchener had done. 

COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF INDIA 

At the conclusion of peace in South Africa in 1902, 
Kitchener was rewarded by advancement to the dignity 
of Viscount, promotion to the rank of general, ''for 

35 



KITCHENER'S MILIT AR Y^RECORD 

distinguished service," the thanks of Parliament, and 
a grant of $250,000. Immediately after the establish- 
ment of peace Kitchener was ordered to India as 
supreme commander of the British and native troops 
in the Indian Empire. It had long been his desire to 
become commander-in-chief in India. The appoint- 
ment was destined to have important results. The 
new commander-in-chief examined the organization of 
the Indian army and found it wanting. 

"Our Indian military administration," he declared, 
''has been framed mainly to meet peace requirements 
and the consideration that an army exists for war has 
been overlooked." 

He carried out not only many far-reaching military 
reforms during his seven years' service in India, but 
also a complete reorganization and strategical redis- 
tribution of the British and naval forces. 

CONSUL-GENERAL TO EGYPT 

In 1909 Kitchener was relieved of the Indian com- 
mand, promoted to field marshal, and assigned to duty 
as commander-in-chief and high commissioner in the 
Mediterranean, in succession to the Duke of Con- 
naught, who was sent to Canada as governor-general. 
This post was more of a sinecure than anything else, 
and Kitchener soon became disgusted with it, and was 
returned to Egypt in 1911 as agent and consul-general 
at Cairo, virtually the governor-generalship of Egypt. 

In the interval between his leaving India and his 
resumption of Egyptian service. Kitchener visited the 
United States, where he was the recipient of marked 
attention. He had many warm personal friends in the 
36 



KITCHENER'S MILITARY RECORD 

American army, among them Major-Generals Leonard 
Wood and Hugh L. Scott, the latter being the superin- 
tendent of the Military Academy at West Point at the 
time of the Kitchener visit. 

MADE AN EARL 

Lord Kitchener only chanced to be in England when 
the European war started August, 1914. He had just 
returned to London from Egypt, had been created an 
Earl by King George and was being talked of as 
Viceroy of India when the storm broke. When it 
became certain that England was to be drawn into 
the conflict, from all parts of the British Empire arose a 
demand that was practically unanimous that he be 
made War Minister. 

Probably no other war official in the history of the 
world ever faced so stupendous a task as that which 
confronted him. Grimly he began his work and within 
a year all England was a training camp, while in the 
Dominions beyond the seas other hundreds of thousands 
had been mobilized in training camps or sent over 
seas to duty in France and the near East. 

The task of recruiting the great armies that Kitchener 
knew England had to have if the war was to be won, 
proved the hardest fight of his career. He found the 
supply of ammunition woefully short and reluctantly 
came to realize that, if the armies he wanted to raise 
were to be, conscription would have to be resorted to. 
As the war progressed many who previously clamored 
loudest for his appointment to the war post became 
his severest critics. He was blamed for this and that 
failure of the forces in France, was held responsible for 

37 



KITCHENER'S MILITARY RECORD 

the shortage in munitions and for various other defects 
in the mihtary system which he was working so hard 
all the time to overcome. Among his severest critics 
were the newspapers controlled by Lord Northcliffe 
and Winston Churchill, the former First Lord of the 
Admiralty. 

But Kitchener paid not the slightest attention to 
those who criticised him. He went his way, cool and 
thorough, supported by the great mass of the British 
people, and when he set sail on what was to be his last 
voyage it was his satisfaction to know that ''out of 
the rawest of raw material," as a British army officer 
expressed it, he had created a fighting machine of 
nearly 5,000,000 men. 

Twice in his life Lord Kitchener was the object of 
attempted assassination, once in Egypt and another 
time in India. In both instances the plots were frus- 
trated and the plotters arrested. The bombs that 
were to have been used in the plot hatched in 1908 to 
kill him while on duty in India were said at the time to 
have been shipped from New York. It was in 1912 
that the plot to kill Earl Kitchener in Cairo was dis- 
covered and frustrated. 

HIS PLACE IN HISTORY 

The British Empire mourns him as a great warrior. 
There was a Kitchener tradition, or superstition, which 
made him appear to his countrymen as the very em- 
bodiment of military genius, and not all the charges of 
war-office failures and blunderings could destroy the 
figure of idolization which they had set up. 

Despite their proverbial stoHdity, there are no people 
38 



KITCHENER'S MILITARY RECORD 

on earth more ardent in hero-worship than the British. 
They are slow to lift any man to a pedestal, but once 
they have done so his national fame is secure. Thus 
it was that, having no real acquaintance with their 
hero, they created in their own minds an idealized 
Kitchener. 

He was to them the highest exponent of military 
genius, a romantic and resplendent figure of the soldier, 
a transcendent figure whose very name must terrify 
the foe and command victory. He had subjugated 
the desert hordes; he had broken the resistance of the 
Boers; he had revolutionized the Indian army; he had 
pacified Egypt — who else could wield the forces of the 
Empire in its supreme struggle for existence? 

And the popular imagination clothed him with fasci- 
nating attributes of mind and person. To it he 
appeared a figure of inscrutable power, inexhaustible 
energy and implacable will; masterful, grim, remorse- 
lessly efficient — a very superman. 

To this conception the people clung through good 
report and evil. And to this, in great degree, was due 
what measure of success and preparedness the Empire's 
land forces achieved. The unwavering, unconquerable 
trust of the British people in Kitchener was one of the 
most effective factors in the nation's war progress. 
It is because of this fact that his loss was so serious to 
them. There are many abler soldiers and wiser states- 
men whom they could have spared better than this 
singularly powerful man. 

In forty years of service he had spent hardly as 
many months in England. He knew nothing — could 
Imow nothing — of the complex social and economic 

39 



KITCHENER'S MILITARY RECORD 

problems that had arisen during his prolonged absence, 
and that would be intensified when it was attempted 
suddenly to turn a peaceful country into a military 
camp and a nation into an army. 

He had no conception of the importance which labor 
had achieved in public affairs, or of the great social 
reforms which had created new conditions, or of the 
vital relationship of industry to modern warfare. Thus 
the workshops were stripped of men to fill the trenches, 
and the manufacture of munitions was neglected in 
order that armies might be built up. The result was 
the confusion that presaged disaster, and necessitated 
the division of the war secretary's power by appoint- 
ment of a minister of munitions and by reorganization 
of the system of recruiting. 

What, then, was the value of Kitchener? Just this — 
that because he held to a supreme degree the confidence 
of the people, he was enabled to convince them, against 
their own beliefs, that the war would be long and 
incredibly costly; and to perform the miracle of creat- 
ing an army of millions from a nation inveterately 
opposed to a large military establishment. 

Those who said that Kitchener was not right once 
during the whole war forgot that he had been con- 
spicuously right, and almost alone, in his judgment 
upon two vital matters. He declared in the first weeks 
of the war that the conflict, which experts were pre- 
dicting would be over in a few months, would probably 
last for three years; and he insisted, in the face of 
violent prejudice, that the nation must have soldiers, 
not by scores or hundreds of thousands, but by millions. 

Moreover, it was his summons, more powerful than 
40 



KITCHENER'S MILITARY RECORD 

the command of the king, the urgings of pubHcists or 
the frantic appeals of recruiting agencies, that brought 
5,000,000 volunteers to the colors in fifteen months, 
and his genius for organization that fashioned from 
them the forces which the whole world justly called 
''Kitchener's armies." 

These are the achievements that will make the name 
of Kitchener great. He came to be, in a peculiar sense, 
the spirit of Great Britain, and the nation will fight 
on the inspiration he put into it. If he was not the 
miracle-worker that his countrymen beheved, he was 
the best man available for the tremendous task com- 
mitted to him. His power was based upon the support 
and confidence of the democracy, and his legacy to it 
was a democratic army for the salvation of the nation 
whole. 



il 



CHAPTER IV 
KITCHENER OF KHARTOUM 

AGAIN IN COMMAND IN EGYPT — THE RESOURCEFUL 

INTELLIGENCE DEPARTMENT THE ATTACK ON 

FIRKET — THE FAMOUS DESERT MARCH RECAPTURE 

OF DONGOLA THE "IMPOSSIBLE" RAILWAY 

ACROSS THE SOUDAN THE VICTORY AT THE 

ATBARA — KITCHENER ENCOUNTERS THE KHALIFA 
— OMDURMAN FALLS — THE CAPTURE OF KHARTOUM. 

SO FAR BACK as 1883, as already recorded, Kitch- 
ener for the first time entered the Egyptian army. 
From that date until 1898, when he raised the British 
colors over the palace at Khartoum, and by his splendid 
victory over the Khalifa avenged the death of General 
Gordon, Kitchener was actively engaged in laying the 
foundations of the estabhshed order, peace and pros- 
perity now enjoyed by the Egyptians and Soudanese. 
The Dongola Expedition of 1896 proved the fighting 
value of the new Egyptian force organized by Kitchener 
and was the beginning of the movement that was to 
culminate in the reconquest of the Soudan. Kitchener, 
when he began the organization of this army, which 
was to win such glory at Omdurman and Khartoum, 
found it a m.otley and discontented horde of underfed 
and underpaid natives. Kitchener's task was to bring 
it up to date, one of the many "impossible" things 
that the Sirdar did in record-breaking time. 
42 



KITCHENER OF KHARTOUM 

It was on March 12, 1896, that the Dongola Expedi- 
tion was formally authorized. 

Sir Herbert Kitchener marched out of Wady Haifa, 
at the head of a mixed force of British and Egyptian 
troops to the number of 9,000. An Italian army had 
been severely defeated in Abyssinia, and the dervishes 
thought the moment opportune for the delivery of 
further attacks. The Sirdar advanced with caution, 
constructing a railway behind him to keep up com- 
munication and supplies, while the gunboats on the 
Nile kept pace with the advancing army. 

THE ATTACK ON FIRKET 

The advance was to be made by two routes, one by 
the river and the other along the old railroad track, 
now being relaid mile after mile. On June 6th the 
order was given for an attack on Firket to be made at 
daybreak. Through the black darkness of the night 
the forward march began, till the spot designed for the 
bivouac was reached just before midnight. At moon- 
rise, and in strict silence, the march was resumed. At 
daybreak came suddenly the distant sound of a drum- 
beat from the direction of the dervish camp. The 
camp was still a mile away, and quite hidden by the 
rising ground. The sound, it soon transpired, was not 
that of the alarm — it was the call to prayer. 

Then with machine-like precision the two halves of 
the advancing force came together; the enemy was 
taken by surprise, and utterly crushed. In the assault 
the dash of the British officers was only equaled by the 
ardor of the native troops ; the loopholed mud walls of 
Firket were swept clean, and the victory was complete. 

43 



KITCHENER OF KHARTOUM 

Large stores of grain and war material fell into the 
conquerors' hands. 

The desert march to Dongola was a prodigious piece 
of work, but it was felt by those who accompanied it 
in the capacity of correspondents and critics, that it 
took too much energy out of the troops — so much so 
that had they at the end of it encountered an active 
enemy the result might have been somewhat doubtful. 

RECAPTURE OF DONGOLA 

Then came the most important event in the war, 
the recapture of Dongola with its large stores of grain 
and war material. By the end of September General 
Kitchener, after another fight, had dealt his first 
decisive blow, and was absolute master of Dongola. 

THE ''impossible" RAILWAY ACROSS THE DESERT 

The first thing Sir Herbert Kitchener had to decide 
was the route to be taken. Of the old route by Korti 
and across the Bayuda Desert to Metemmeh, he 
already knew something; another feasible route from 
Suakin on the Red Sea to Berber was tempting by 
reason of its shortness; but both were discarded in 
favor of one of his own conception. 

Little wonder therefore, all things considered, that 
Kitchener formed the bold plan of constructing a rail- 
way as he went along. 

PICKING THE RIGHT MAN 

Happily he got hold of the right man to carry out his 
idea. This was Lieutenant Girouard, a subaltern in 
the Royal Engineers, a modest young Canadian, who 
44 




pG o 



KITCHENER OF KHARTOUM 

had had experience in track-laying on the Canadian- 
Pacific line, and had come out to Egypt for the Dongola 
campaign. 

The first spadeful of sand of the Desert Railway was 
turned on the first day of 1897. New workshops were 
commenced at Haifa, and experienced mechanics were 
procured to direct them. Fifteen hundred additional 
men were enUsted in the Railway Battalion and trained 
to the work. The difficulties to be overcome were not 
of the ordinary railway-building type. Each engine 
employed had first to haul enough water to carry it 
to railhead and back, besides a reserve against acci- 
dents — for the surveys had disclosed only two spots 
where water was likely to be found in the desert. Then 
the feeding of the two thousand plate-layers in a barren 
desert was in itself no easy problem. But it was solved, 
for the work had to be completed before the winter; 
and, above all, the money voted was not to be outrun. 
The Sirdar attended strictly to every condition, not 
omitting the last. 

COMPLETE TO ABU HAMED 

As Abu Hamed grew near, the element of danger 
began to make itself felt — what if the dervishes by a 
circuitous march should cut the line behind them? The 
problem no sooner presented itself for consideration 
than it was dealt with. A flying column, under General 
Hunter, was sent from Merawi along the river bank, 
and Abu Hamed was promptly stormed and captured. 
The work of construction was neither delayed nor 
interrupted. On November 1st the Soudan Military 
Railway arrived at Abu Hamed, and General Kitchener 

45 



KITCHENER OF KHARTOUM 

was again in unbroken communication with Cairo, both 
by rail and river. 

ON TO BERBER 

Then came the consideration of the advisabihty of 
extending the railway beyond Abu Hamed. Almost 
without hesitation it was decided to continue the line 
to Berber, and perhaps beyond that point to the junc- 
tion of the Atbara with the Nile. The work of con- 
struction was therefore resumed, and for the first sixty 
miles the line ran beside the Nile at the edge of the 
riparian belt; on the right a cultivable though mostly 
uncultivated strip, dotted with palms and prickly 
mimosa bushes, beyond which the river gleamed 
refreshingly; on the left, nothing but desert broken by 
frequent rocks and dry water-courses. The iron road 
was deemed necessary, because it would have been far 
from wise to depend on water communications, which 
at times were rendered unsafe by cataracts. 

Mahmoud having withdrawn from Berber and some- 
what mysteriously disappeared southward, a reconnais- 
sance was made by way of the river to locate his position 
and discover his strength. The Sirdar sent his boats 
up to Metemmeh, the mud walls of which were well 
pounded by the guns. This having drawn a brisk rifle 
fire, and disclosed all it was necessary to learn, the boats 
withdrew, easily dropping down stream again, having 
lost only one man. 

At last, while the Sirdar happened to be away north 
at Wady Haifa, came the long-expected news that the 
dervishes were on the move. An advance in force to 
Berber was ordered, and a telegram sent to Cairo 
46 



KITCHENER OF KHARTOUM 

asking for a brigade of British soldiers to be sent to the 
front. Then the immense advantage of the Soudan 
Mihtary Railway became apparent. While the Egyp- 
tian cavalry crossed the Bayuda Desert from Merawi, 
in the old slow way, battalion after battalion converged 
swiftly on the place of concentration by rail, among 
them four from the home army — Cameron's, Seaforth's, 
Warwick's, and Lincoln's, the whole brigade being under 
Major-General Gatacre. On the day the first troop 
train steamed into the fortified camp at the confluence 
of the Nile and Atbara rivers, the doom of the dervishes 
was sealed. 

THE VICTORY AT THE ATBARA 

When Mahmoud marched to the Atbara, Kitchener 
struck camp, and placing himself between Mahmoud 
and the Nile, settled himself down twenty miles from 
his foe, and waited. No matter which line of advance 
the dervishes selected, they were bound to be met, 
bound to be fought. And while his officers were 
consumed with the dread that Mahmoud would escape 
up the Atbara or across the desert, the way he had come, 
their chief had no fear. 

On April 7th General Kitchener moved still nearer 
the foe to Umdabia, where everything was put into 
immediate readiness for the dash on to the Arab zareba, 
seven miles away. The location, size, and strength of 
the zareba had been carefully ascertained by a daring 
reconnaissance made by four British officers a few days 
previously; and it was generally understood through- 
out the attacking force that the defense presented by 
the zareba, a thick barrier strongly constructed of 

47 



KITCHENER OF KHARTOUM 

desert thorns, was far more formidable than any earth- 
work known to modern warfare. 

A WELL-PLANNED VICTORY 

The undertaking began with a night march, in order 
that the engagement might be opened early in the 
morning and fought to its conclusion before the scorch- 
ing African sun reached the midday sky. The army 
was drawn out at sunset, and moved forward in the 
darkness, making a brief halt at midnight. Soon after 
the march wa§ resumed the enemy's camp-fires came 
into view; it was then about three o'clock, and the 
Sirdar watched the Arab's fortified enclosure from the 
edge of a plateau. There was apparently no stir there, 
though the presence of the attackers must have been 
known. On neither side was there anything in the shape 
of confusion; cei'tainly no suspicion of panic, though 
the suspense was intense; and scarcely a sound broke 
the stillness till at half-past six the guns spoke out, and 
the bombardment began. For considerably more than 
an hour Mahmoud's doomed stronghold beside the dry 
bed of the Atbara was searched with shot and shell; 
and then, the batteries having accomplished all that 
v/as demanded of them, the advance was sounded, and 
thirteen thousand infantry moved forward with con- 
fidence and military precision. 

Steadily and irresistibly the discipHned soldiery swept 
into the entrenched dervish enclosure, and got at once 
to close quarters with rifle fire and bayonet work. With 
such grim determination was the assault made, so 
strenuously was the fighting maintained, that the day 
was won with a rapidity almost incredible — three- 
48 



KITCHENER OF KHARTOUM 

quarters of an hour after the bugles had sounded the 
advance, they sounded the cease fire! 

THE MASTER SPIRIT 

When it was all over, and the significance of the 
result fully realized, the troops cheered long, loud, and 
lustily. Then, observes an eye-witness of the scene, 
Herbert Kitchener was ''quite human for one-quarter 
of an hour," relaxing that inscrutable countenance of 
his, just for one brief space, into something that bore 
the faint semblance of a smile. A victorious general 
in the first flush of triumph may be excused for allowing 
himself the luxury of appearing human. 

KITCHENER ENCOUNTERS THE KHALIFA 

The scattered dervishes retired on Omdurman. As 
nothing could be successfully attempted during the hot 
season, the Expeditionary Force went into summer 
quarters; the Egyptian army was distributed into three 
garrisons — the Atbara camp, Berber, and Abadia. The 
British brigade encamped at DarmaH and Selim, two 
small villages. 

Kitchener's method of dealing with his chief prisoner, 
the Khalifa's lieutenant, presents a curious episode. 
As soon as he reached Berber after the victory, he held 
a parade of all the troops. A platform was erected 
a^d adorned with flags; on this, surrounded by his 
staff, the General took his stand. The Emir Mahmoud, 
his hands bound behind his back, was then compelled 
to march past at the head of the army, preceded by an 
enormous flag, on which was inscribed, "This is Mah- 
moud, who said he would take Berber." 

i 49 



KITCHENER OF KHARTOUM 

Mahmoud's master, with those who had fallen back 
upon Omdurman, had now at his command a force 
calculated at upwards of fifty thousand fighting men. 
Having learned from Osman Digna the terrible nature 
of the foe marching against him, he resolved to remain 
where he was and await his oncoming. And so, in 
mihtary inactivity and gross sensual indulgence, he 
wore the time away in the palace of his new capital. 

PREPARING THE FINAL ATTACK 

In numbers, the enemy were more than twice as 
strong as the EngHsh. The Khalifa was supposed 
to have a large bodyguard of some nine thousand 
blacks, fairly seasoned Soudanese troops officered 
by the sons of sheiks and emirs, whose allegiance 
was assured by the hostages thus given to the 
Khalifa. Then came a mass of Baggara spearmen 
and irregular cavalry, well proved in the past as 
rehable fighting stuff. 

Omdurman is on the western bank of the Nile, and 
Khartoum on the eastern, facing it. When the Expe- 
dition moved forward, the main force marched along 
the western bank of the river; on the eastern marched 
a miscellaneous horde of friendlies under the charge of 
Major Stuart Wortley; while between the two forces, 
up the great waterway, went the flotilla, comprising 
ten gunboats, five steamers, and a long string of laden 
barges and sailing boats in tow. 

STRIKING THE BLOW 

As the Shabluka Gorge was approached there was 
some little anxiety as to the possibility of attack there; 
50 



KITCHENER OF KHARTOUM 

but the Khalifa failed to take advantage of his oppor- 
tunity, and the little fleet made the passage safely and 
without interruption. 

As the distance lessened, the view became clearer; 
stir and movement among the enemy became discern- 
ible, and the zareba was found to be one of men, not 
of bushes. 

At eleven o'clock the gunboats engaged the enemy's 
batteries. The forts, mounting nearly fifty guns, 
rephed vigorously; but the British aim was too good; 
the great wall of Omdurman was breached in numerous 
places, and presently the Mahdi's tomb, which the 
dervishes believed to be indestructible, was hit, its 
dome and cupolas being smashed to dust. When the 
lower forts were silenced, the Jaalin — the only really 
trustworthy men in Major Wortley's force — were 
ordered to clear out the villages there. 

A MEMORABLE BATTLE 

It was midday, September 1st; the results of many 
years of preparation, and of three years of actual war, 
were about to be put to the test. But at a quarter to 
two the dervish army halted. Their drill had been 
excellent, and they all stopped at a single command. 
Then suddenly their riflemen discharged their pieces 
in the air — it was just a barbaric feu de joie. After this 
every man lay down on the ground, and it became 
evident the matter was not to be settled that day. 
An hour or so later the enemy had encamped, and no 
attack was to be looked for until daybreak. 

When that morning, at half -past nine, the Sirdar had 
ridden to the summit of '^ Signal Hill," he saw before 

51 



KITCHENER OF KHARTOUM 

him, for the first time, not more than three miles off, 
the whole army of fifty thousand dervishes, with all 
their banners, lances, and standards displayed, moving 
forward. It was a critical moment, for the Anglo- 
Egyptian army had only just taken up its camp, and 
was in no fighting formation. That, however, was a 
comparatively trifling matter. The lines were rapidly 
formed, and in a short time a fair zareba had been 
made. When that was finished, if the enemy had 
attacked by daylight, there was no reason to be 
anxious; if they intended a night attack, th? General 
doubtless knew it, and was equally prepared for it. 

By six o'clock the whole dervish mass was in motion; 
the full power of Mahdism was advancing swiftly to the 
attack. Then above the distant noise of their shouting 
came a tremendous roar — their guns had opened the 
engagement. The British and Egyptian force wa^ 
arranged in line, with its back to the river, and its 
flank secured by the gunboats. 

The tide of battle now began to rise fast. The 
Khalifa and his flag, surrounded by at least ten thousand 
men, advanced, and the engagement became general. 

THE TWENTY-FIRST LANCERS 

The Arab army, fierce, reckless and fanatical, in- 
spired with deadly hatred of their unbelieving enemies, 
charged again and again with a determined impetuosity 
that would have been trying to the most seasoned 
troops. But the Sirdar's men, drawn up in solid 
formation, and armed with rifles and Maxim guns, met 
every assault with admirable coolness, inflicting heavy 
losses upon the attackers. 
52 



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KITCHENER OF KHARTOUM 

Events were moving rapidly, and the stage upon 
which they were being enacted was a large one. Many 
scenes of heroism, of devotion, of reckless courage, 
happened that day, but none more dramatic, more 
tragic, than that of the Holy Ensign. 

After the charge of the dervish horsemen, who were 
annihilated, the Khalifa's infantry advanced. Not 
disheartened, but incited by the fate of the horsemen, 
they came on, sweeping along the side of the valley 
like a seething torrent. It was the last assault, and the 
Khalifa's banner was borne in the center of the line. 
Shot and shell rattled and hissed from the Maxims and 
guns on the ridge commanding the valley, making great 
gaps in the white jebba-clad ranks. 

OMDURMAN FALLS 

When the fighting was over, the cost came to be 
counted. The dervishes had ten thousand eight 
hundred killed and sixteen thousand wounded; while 
the losses of the British and Egyptian forces amounted 
only to forty-seven killed and three hundred and forty- 
two wounded. The wide margin of difference is 
significant, and offefs much food for reflection. The 
Arab army had had enough of fighting against an enemy 
fully equipped with all the weapons and resources of 
modern warfare. 

After a halt, and the watering of the troops, the 
march towards the Khalifa's new capital was resumed. 

It was a bold decision to march right away into 
Omdurman, when the town was full of fighting men, 
the day more than half spent, and no reconnaissance 
possible, owing to mirage. But had the entry been 

53 



KITCHENER OF KHARTOUM 

delayed till twenty-four hours later, serious resistance 
might have been offered, and a house-to-house, street- 
to-street, fight would undoubtedly have resulted in 
very heavy losses. 

To Major Wingate, the ablest of InteUigence Officers, 
fell the happy duty of sending to England the tele- 
graphic despatch announcing the great victory at 
Omdurman; no message of the kind ever electrified 
a nation more, or gave more widespread satisfac- 
tion. 

The city of Omdurman was formally surrendered to 
the Sirdar as he rode up at the close of the battle on 
September 2d. Three men advanced slowly to meet 
the victorious general. They knelt in the roadway, 
and presented him with the keys of the city, of the 
arsenal, of the prison, and the various public buildings. 
He accepted their surrender and spoke words of peace. 
Rising swiftly, the men shouted out the good news, and 
thereupon from every house men, women, and children 
appeared, joyfully relieved from fear. 

THE OCCUPATION OF OMDURMAN 

Inside the city, which was occupied that night, 
many awful and ghastly sights met the eye; on every 
hand were destruction, confusion, filth, and the all- 
pervading stench of putrefaction. In a number of 
places lay heaps of surrendered weapons, some thrown 
down by sullen warriors, many delivered up by willing 
deserters. The open space in front of the Mahdi's 
tomb — the destruction of which was calculated as much 
as anything to impress the superstitious townsfolk — 
was filled with troops. Order was gradually being 
54 



KITCHENER OF KHARTOUM 

restored, to replace the disorders, excesses, and iniqui- 
ties of the deposed Khalifa. 

THE CAPTURE OF KHARTOUM 

Omdui'man was disappointing. It had been hoped 
to find decent dwellings of stone or other material, but 
the town was not very different, except in size, from 
the mud villages passed all along the river. There was 
really nothing to see in Omdurman, and on Sunday, 
the fourth of September, most of the English officers 
took steamer up to Khartoum. A landing was effected 
opposite the remains of Gordon's house, where a service 
was held. Khartoum, as a town, had ceased to exist; 
it was one mass of ruins. Gordon's house still stood, 
but minus its roof; the orange-gardens with which it 
was surrounded made the scene, sad as it was, a 
refreshing change from Omdurman, where there was 
not even a bush. 

Two expeditions were forthwith despatched, up the 
White and the Blue Niles respectively, to establish 
garrisons. These expeditions and operations also were 
successful. General Kitchener went with that up the 
White Nile, in personal command, starting on Sep- 
tember 8th, towards Fashoda, with five steamers. 

The expedition proceeded as far as the mouth of the 
Sobat, sixty-two miles from Fashoda, which was 
reached next day. Here also the twin flags of Egypt 
and Britain were hoisted, another post formed, and a 
garrison left to hold the place. The expedition then 
turned back; and on the return two gunboats were 
left at the disposal of Colonel Jackson, as commandant 
of the Fashoda district. 

55 



KITCHENER OF KHARTOUM 

By the signal triumph achieved at Omdurman, and 
not a httle by the aid of the Desert Railway, the situa- 
tion in the whole Nile Valley had been revolutionized. 
The reconquered territor}^, after having suffered all 
the tortures of war, was put in the way of achieving 
that for which so long it had thirsted — peace and 
plenty, and the blessings of civilization. 

Thus had Great Britain and Egypt moved hand in 
hand up the mighty river, sharing, though unequally, 
the cost of a regenerative war in men and money. The 
allied conquerors became joint possessors; the Soudan 
did not become precisely Eg^'ptian again — ^Egypt itself 
not possessing an independent administration — but an 
entirely new pohtical status was found for it, both 
countries retaining an equal interest in the territory 
and sharing the responsibihty of it — a result which cer- 
tainly strengthened the grasp of England upon Egypt. 

The campaign having been brought to a satisfactory 
conclusion. Kitchener was called upon to exercise some 
of the qualities of statesmanship, and again he showed 
conspicuous ability. It is everywhere acknowledged 
that he proceeded in a masterly manner in the estab- 
lishment of a new order of things, which rescued that 
devastated region from the long spell of primitive 
barbarism into which it had lapsed 



56 



jq Q 





infaniry of thu first Canadian Contingent passing Htonohengo on tlieir \va}- irom 

Salisbury Plain to London. 




Caiiauiaii t'/ansport and li -I 1 arTillcry enibarkini^ at (^iu'i)i'c inv I'.n'fland. 




I'arade of Canadian Highlanders on Salisbury Plain. 



CHAPTER V 
EARL KITCHENER'S HUMAN SIDE 

A MAN WHO SELDOM SMILED — THE OFFICER'S 

MONOCLE HIS SENSE OF JUSTICE HIS GREATEST 

ACHIEVEMENT AS AN ORGANIZER DISGUISED AS 

AN ARAB, LIVED IN THE DESERT — HOW HE PLAYED 

SOLOMON A woman's PICTURE OF THE SILENT 

SOLDIER — FACED DEATH OFTEN. 

EARL KITCHENER was known as a man of iron 
blood, and those who knew him remarked that he 
seldom smiled. He seemed pre-eminently a machine 
in his hard, relentless work. Yet he had his human 
side. 

THE officer's MONOCLE 

At Pretoria one day Lord Kitchener saw a young 
lieutenant sporting a monocle. 

''Does your eyesight require you to wear that?" he 
asked. 

"It does," replied the lieutenant. 

*'Then report tomorrow morning to the line of 
communication," ordered the General. "I do not 
require men with poor eyesight at headquarters." 

HIS GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT AS AN ORGANIZER 

The raising of Kitchener's army, an army of five 
million men, mostly volunteers, is the last and greatest 

57 



KITCHENER'S HUMAN SIDE 

debt which the Empire and civilization owe to this 
great soldier. When the end came he stood in the 
track of duty and died on active service. In death 
as in life he was found at his post. 

DISGUISED AS ARAB, LIVED IN DESERT 

In the early days in Egypt Kitchener was daring 
almost to rashness. He thought nothing of disguising 
himself as an Arab and living among the sons of the 
desert for months at a time, in o^-der to acquire a 
knowledge of the Mahdi's movements and conspiracies. 
And so clever was he in disguising himself that even 
his own comrades did not know him. Indeed, one day 
a soldier flung a brickbat at Kitchener, whom he 
mistook for "a bloomin' nigger," inflicting rather a 
nasty scalp wound. 

HOW HE PLAYED SOLOMON 

Kitchener's cleverness in disguising himself, coupled 
with a knowledge of Arabic, which he had picked up 
in his wanderings in Syria, made him invaluable to the 
authorities. He was appointed chief of the Secret 
Service, and the following incident, the truth of 
which is vouched for by one of Lord Kitchener's 
relatives, strikingly illustrates his personal courage and 
cleverness. 

Two Arab spies had been caught, but they feigned 
deafness, and Kitchener could get nothing from them. 
They were detained in a tent. In half an hour another 
spy was caught and bundled into the tent with the 
other two. They were left for an hour, talking briskly 
all the time, and then the door was thrown open and 
58 



KITCHENER'S HUMAN SIDE 

the third spy demanded to be taken to headquarters. 
It was Kitchener himself, who had, of course, found 
out all he wanted to know. 

A woman's picture of the silent soldier 

Mrs. J. S. Erskine, widow of a former captain of the 
Tenth Royal Hussars, who was for a time attached to 
the staff of Lord Kitchener, relates the following 
characteristic story: 

''I played England in a war with Germany," said 
Mrs. Erskine, "and accidentally planted my flag on 
Belgian soil. Cries that this wag neutral territory 
were immediately raised, but Lord Kitchener backed 
me up. 'That's just what she ought to do,' he said. 
' If ever there is a war with Germany that is what the 
English will do unless the Germans do it first.' 'You 
forget the treaty of London,' someone said. 'No,' he 
shot back. 'Bismarck was a statesman. He signed 
to something that would be for the future good of his 
country. War knows nothing about the future good. It 
is only the present that appeals to the warrior, and any 
clever commander knows that the best way to get 
from Germany to France is through Belgium.' 

" 'Then what will happen?' I asked. I meant what 
would happen should Germany invade Belgium. 

" ' That is in the lap of the gods,' was his reply. ' But 
I'll tell you what I think would happen. Germany 
would win the first round. After that she would be 
out-maneuvered. ' 

"Picking up one of the Httle flags he said he thought 
Ostend would be a good place to land troops, but 
reconsidered and decided on a point south of Dunkirk." 

59 



KITCHENER'S HUMAN SIDE 

HIS SENSE OF JUSTICE 

"A soldier was digging a ditch near Pretoria," said 
Mrs. Erskine, ''and the General observed him for a 
long while. Finally he sent for him. He asked him 
if he wasn't ill. The soldier replied that he was: that 
he felt quite badly. ' Then why don't you report sick?' 
demanded the General. 'I did/ replied the soldier; 
'but the doctor said I was fit for duty.' Lord Kitch- 
ener sent for the young surgeon, ordered him to make 
an examination, found the soldier was suffering from 
typhoid fever and sent him to the hospital. Then he 
said to the doctor, 'You can apply for your leave 
home. I have no use here for the sort of a doctor 
you are.' " 

FACED DEATH OFTEN 

For two years Kitchener practically lived among the 
Arabs, carrying his life in his hands, never knowing 
when he might be brought face to face with a violent 
death, and all the while communicating to the heads 
of the Egyptian Intelligence Department information 
of the utmost importance. 



60 



CHAPTER VI 
THE WORLD'S GREATEST NAVAL BATTLE 

ARMAGEDDON ON THE SEA — ^ADMIRAL BEATTY SIGHTS 

THE ENEMY DESTROYERS OPEN ACTION AN OLD 

ENEMY ENCOUNTERED SUPERDREADNAUGHTS 

COME UP NOTABLE DEED OF BRAVERY FLIGHT 

OF THE GERMANS DARKNESS SAVED THE GER- 
MANS PLAYED GALLANTLY FOR HIGH STAKES. 

IN THE ten years since the first " Dreadnaught " was 
launched hundreds of miUions of dollars have been put 
into this new type of battleship, which was tried out for 
the first time between the Skagerak and Kiel. Here, 
on the last day of Ma-y, 1916, the greatest naval battle 
in all history was fought. 

The battle was fought along virtually the entire 
west coast of Denmark, reaching the maximum inten- 
sity off the Horn Reef, near the southwestern extremity 
of Denmark. 

The German fleet, commanded by Vice Admiral 
Reinhard Scheer and including at least five dread- 
naughts, eight cruisers and twenty torpedo-boats and 
destroyers, left the Skagerak Wednesday morning. 
May 31st. 

Vice Admiral Sir David Beatty, who commanded 
the British cruiser squadron, had cruised many times 
in the vicinity of the battlefield without succeeding in 
luring the Germans from their mined waters, but on 

61 



THE GREATEST NAVAL BATTLE 



this occasion the British seamen had an inkhng that 
something important was about to happen. 

ADMIRAL BEATTY SIGHTS THE ENEMY 

Just before the conflict the battle-cruiser squadron 
was shoving through the water at a good twenty-five 



Shetl 
Isla 




Map Showing the Scene of the World's Greatest Naval Battle. 

knots, the destroyers and hght cruisers in their ap- 
pointed places. The sea was smooth as a millpond. 
The day was warm and a slight haze hung over the 
62 



THE GREATEST NAVAL BATTLE 

water. As the official announcement put it, the 
visibihty was low. For nearly sixteen hours the 
squadron steamed steadily on. Then the destroyer 
screen reported the presence of enemy craft, small 
craft, but significant perhaps of the presence of bigger 
ones. 

DESTROYERS OPEN ACTION 

A smart little destroyer action was begun, a light 
cruiser dashed up to assist, and soon the first phase of 
the battle was in full swing. 

Having succeeded at length in drawing the whole 
German fleet out of its safe quarters. Vice Admiral 
Beatty, although greatly outnumbered and running 
heavy risks, determined to hang on grimly in order 
to detain the Germans in full strength. It was 
a daring maneuver, but the British fought dog- 
gedly and with great pertinacity, despite all dis- 
advantages, confident that reinforcements were on the 
way. 

For the first time since the war began the Germans 
stood up to Beatty and his indomitable ships, and from 
impressions gathered from Beatty's men who came 
through the fight the Germans suffered heavily during 
that phase. Their gunnery was good, but it was not 
so good as the British. It was a running fight, fought 
at a speed which gave the advantage to the British 
ships. The Lion, as on the memorable day of the 
Dogger Bank battle, led the line, followed by the 
mighty Tiger. Both performed marvels of speed, and 
there should be further honors for the engine-room 
staffs. 

63 



THE GREATEST NAVAL BATTLE 

AN OLD ENEMY ENCOUNTERED 

Opposite them at long range was, among others, an 
old enemy in the Derfflinger. In the Dogger Bank 
fight the Derfflinger sent a shell into the wardroom of 
the Tiger, and no report has been more industriously 
circulated among neutrals by the Germans than that 
the Tiger had been sent to the bottom. It was there- 
fore with peculiar relish that the crew of the Tiger 
proceeded to demonstrate to their old enemy that they 
were very much alive. 

From the Tiger there went a shell which got one of 
the Derfflinger's turrets and wiped out a whole gun 
crew. Others were planted with equally deadly 
effect. 

The battle raged with tremendous violence. The air 
was filled with white-hot steel, dust and slivers, and 
ears were deafened with the tremendous crash and 
clatter of it all. Had the opposing forces remained as 
they were, the result was inevitable. Beatty's squad- 
ron was adding to its battle honors. Smart maneu- 
vering, seamanship and fine gunnery were telling their 
tale, when another factor intervened which would have 
sealed the fate of the German squadrons. 

SUPERDREADNAUGHTS COME UP 

With the battle-cruiser squadron there had gone out 
from a Scottish port what in the official announcements 
are called fast battleships. The Warspite was one. 
Sister ships of the Queen Elizabeth class, the Barham 
Malaya and Valiant, were the others. 

The battle-cruiser action was fought with the enemy 
lying close to neutral Danish waters, off Jutland. 
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THE GREATEST NAVAL BATTLE 

Everything was going well with Admiral Beatty when 
the four superdreadnaughts came up, and rushed in 
to cut off the enemy from his southern base. Beatty 
was then to drive in from the northeast, and either 
force the Germans to shelter in neutral waters or compel 
them to accept the challenge of the heavy battleships. 
The strategy was excellent, but it was applied too late. 
From the south came reinforcements which provided 
an explanation of the reason for the Germans accepting 
Beatty's challenge. From the south came the major 
portion of the German Grand Fleet. 

The Warspite got the brunt of the first attack. It 
is said she became isolated from her consorts, became 
surrounded by a half dozen ships, made a brilliant fight 
against impossible odds, disposed of more than one of 
them and by clever maneuvering showed a clean pair 
of heels. 

NOTABLE DEED OF BRAVERY 

It is this phase of the fight which will go down as one 
of the most gallant deeds in British naval history. 

Beatty knew the risks he had to run, but he had to 
hold the enemy at all costs. He knew the Grand Fleet 
was not far behind, and he knew what it meant if he 
could hold on until Jellicoe arrived. What Beatty and 
his men went through during those hours of inferno no 
one but themselves can ever realize. Strong men, 
physically strong and strong of nerves, men who had 
looked death in the face in naval actions before, 
shuddered as they thought of it. 'It was like forty 
thunderstorms rolled into one," said one of them. "It 
was as if aU the ammunition in Britain and Germany 
1 66 



THE GREATEST NAVAL BATTLE 

had been let off in one-half an hour," said another. *'It 
was hell," was the commonest description. 

The Queen Mary was the first to go under. A great 
shell punched through her over her thinner armor plate. 
Her magazine exploded and the gallant ship, almost the 
latest British battle- cruiser, buckled up and sank like a 
stone. The Indefatigable went next. It was not war, 
it was murder. German sheUs with poisonous gas 
exploded, fiUing the ships with their fumes and doing 
great havoc among the crews at their stations. Annihi- 
lating blasts from twelve-inch guns took the vessels like 
a tornado, wiping away men like flies. 

The Lion and the Tiger, maneuvering with marvelous 
skill and speed, kept their heads up and their face to 
the enemy. Then Admiral Hood, with the Invincible, 
Inflexible and Indomitable, arrived from another sta- 
tion. With them came armored cruisers of the second 
cruiser squadron, including the Warrior, Defence and 
Black Prince, three gallant ships resting from their 
labors. The gallant and brilliant admiral put up a 
great fight against heavy odds, but fate was against 
him, and the Invincible, with a deadly torpedo in her 
hull, followed her sister ships to the bottom. 

FLIGHT OF THE GERMANS 

From four o'clock in the afternoon for something 
like four or five hours the battle-cruisers, with the four 
battleships, had engaged and held the enemy. Their 
part was finished, and never was more welcome the 
aid which came in the shape of the Grand Fleet. With 
its arrival the balance of strength passed from the 
Germans. For a time they fought a running-away 
66 



THE GREATEST NAVAL BATTLE 

fight. They turned heel and made the shortest possible 
road for home. After them went the whole might of 
the British fleet and chased them home in the darkness 
to their lair, and adding in the process to the already 
heavy losses they incurred in the earlier phase of the 
battle. 

DARKNESS SAVED THE GERMANS 

The difficulties of the pursuers were increased by the 
growing darkness, and only eleven of all the British 
battleships managed to get a shot at the enemy before 
he had reached a place where Admiral Jelhcoe deemed 
it would be foolhardy to attempt to dig him out. 
Admiral Jellicoe remained in the immediate neighbor- 
hood for twenty-four hours afterwards, waiting to give 
the Germans an opportunity of renewing the action on 
a grand scale, but nothing of the kind was attempted. 

Under cover of night the German torpedo flotilla 
made an attack on the British fleet, but only succeeded 
in increasing their total of torpedo-boat losses. 

The loss of life was very heavy, as dreadnaughts of 
the Warspite, Queen Mary, Kaiser and Lutzow classes 
have each a complement of upward of one thousand 
men, and most of the other warships, excluding de- 
stroyers, reported sunk carried each about seven hun- 
dred men. On the cruisers and destroyers whose loss 
was admitted in London there were all together about 
six thousand men. On the German vessels admitted 
lost there were probably two thousand two hundred 
men. Parts of the crews of the British ships were 
rescued by the Germans but, according to Berhn, of 
the seven hundred and ninety men aboard the Inde- 

67 



THE GREATEST NAVAL BATTLE 

fatigable all but two lost their lives. Fishing craft 
made their way into Dutch ports laden with dead and 
wounded. 

A British official statement showed that with a few 
exceptions all the officers on the Invincible, Queen 
Mary, Indefatigable, Defense and Black Prince were 
lost. AU officers of the Warrior except one were saved. 

On the German side the only definite statements as 
to loss of life were that three hundred and forty-two of 
the three hundred and sixty-one men in the crew of 
the cruiser Frauenlob perished; and that ninety-nine 
out of one hundred and two lost their lives on the 
torpedo-boat V-28. There were no estimates of the 
number of wounded, although these soon began to 
pour into London and were to be found on practically 
every vessel putting into Dutch and Danish ports. 

The outstanding impression gained from a visit to 
east coast ports, to which some of the ships engaged 
in the Jutland battle returned, was that the result was 
much more satisfactory than the first official announce- 
ment led one to expect. It was an interesting experi- 
ence to get into touch with men who had been through 
the fight. There was no pessimism there. They were 
firmly "convinced the British warships gave as good and 
better than they got. They said that if the full tale 
of the German losses were told by Berlin the battle 
would be hailed as one of the finest actions of the 
British fleet. 

Whatever the German mission in the daring enter- 
prise directed northward^ — whether to break out into 
the Atlantic or to carry out another raid on the British 
coast — it failed. The British battle-cruisers met them, 
68 



THE GREATEST NAVAL BATTLE 

encountered the first of their battle-cruiser squadrons, 
gave them a merciless pounding and then when enemy 
reinforcements came held up the German battle fleet 
in a gallant but hopeless fight until the Grand Fleet 
arrived. Then the Germans, having bravely engaged 
a weaker force, bolted for home. 

PLAYED GALLANTLY FOR HIGH STAKES 

Vice Admiral Beatty could have avoided the fight, 
but it is not the British way. He knew the Grand 
Fleet was speeding to his aid. He knew that to engage 
the whole might of the German fleet was to sacrifice 
ships and men; but he knew also the high stakes he 
played for, and right gallantly did he do his part. 
Three of his battle-cruisers went to the bottom with 
their intrepid crews. Others came in bearing their 
battle scars, but Beatty's reputation stands un- 
tarnished. 



69 



CHAPTER VII 
BRITAIN'S NAVY SAVES CIVILIZATION 

TASKS OF THE NAVY SUBSIDIARY DUTIES COM- 
MERCE PROTECTION SAFEGUARDING THE FOOD 

SUPPLY PATROLS CLOSING THE ENEMY's PORTS 

TRANSPORT OF AN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE MAIN 

OBJECT DESTRUCTION OF THE ENEMY's FLEETS 

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS CONDITIONS OF A GER- 
MAN INITIATIVE. 

THE THREE principal duties that the British Navy 
was called upon to perform at the outbreak of the war 
were, first, the securing of the seas for the passage of 
British ships, especially the safeguarding of the food 
supply and the transport of troops; secondly, the 
destruction by capture of hostile shipping with the 
object of depriving the enemy of his supplies and 
rendering futile all projects of invasion; thirdly, the 
destruction of the hostile fleets and naval bases. 
It was obvious that the last, for practical purposes, 
would comprehend the other two; but it was not so 
certain that opportunities would offer for its accom- 
plishment. In the meantime it was to be hoped 
that the British fleet, by reason of its superior battle 
strength, would be able either to force the enemy to 
fight or to retire to his ports, and so afford an oppor- 
tunity for its numerous cruisers to carry out the 
all-important work of safeguarding their own and 
destroying the enemy's commerce. 
70 



NAVY SAVES CIVILIZATION 

SUBSIDIARY DUTIES 

The wide development of the closely-knit system of 
commercial protection, and the effect of the offensive 
action of British cruisers upon the enemy's shipping, 
were perhaps not quite adequately realized by the 
British public at the commencement of the war. A few 
days after the beginning of hostilities nearly every 
street corner in London displayed a placard bearing 
the legend, ''Olympic saved by British cruiser." 
The suggestion was that this was an isolated occurrence 
deserving of special and emphatic notice. As a matter 
of fact, this was merely one of many such accidents; 
or, to speak more correctly, it was an incident of the 
general situation at sea that the Olympic should have 
come under the direct convoy of the particular cruiser 
which saved her. What really saved her, what ren- 
dered her practically safe from one end of the voyage 
to the other, was the fact that the British and French 
cruisers guarding that particular line of communication 
were numerous, vigilant, and well-nigh ubiquitous; 
whereas, the enemy's cruisers seeking to assail that 
line were few and for the most part fugitive. 

COMMERCE PROTECTION 

This incident has been used to illustrate the true 
nature and the immense significance of what our fore- 
fathers called "the sea affair." From the moment 
when war became imminent the main British Fleet 
melted into space. Nothing was seen of any part of it, 
except of the flotillas patrolling British coasts. Never- 
theless, although it was invisible, there was never in 
the world's history a more sudden, overwhelming, and 

71 



NAVY SAVES CIVILIZATION 

all-pervading manifestation of the power of the sea 
than that given by the British Fleet, admirably 
seconded by that of France, in the first fortnight of the 
war. The rarity of properly-called naval incidents 
might have left a different impression. It might well 
have seemed that the Fleets of France and England 
had done nothing. As a matter of fact, they had 
done all in their power, and that all was stupendous. 
Those weeks saw German maritime commerce para- 
lyzed; British maritime commerce fast returning to 
normal conditions in all 'the outer seas of the world, 
and not even wholly suspended in the area of immediate 
conflict. Nay, more, it was already seeking new 
realms to conquer — realms left derelict by the collapse 
of the maritime commerce of the enemy. That is, in 
a few words, the long and short of it. Prize Court 
notices of German and Austrian merchantmen captured 
on the seas or seized in British ports appeared daily in 
increasing numbers. Side by side with them appeared 
the familiar notices of the regular sailings of British 
liners for nearly all the ports of the outer seas. The 
newspapers published daily accounts of the new 
avenues of trade, manufacture, and transport opened 
up by the collapse of the enemy's commerce, and of 
the enterprise with which British merchants and 
manufacturers were preparing to exploit them. 

CLOSING THE ENEMY's PORTS 

How it stood with Germany on the other hand 
there is unimpeachable German authority to show. 
At the outbreak of the war the Vorwdrts, the German 
Socialist organ, said: 
72 



C5 



t-H 2 








PJ:nlo from l^ndmrotul and I'liderirood, A'. Y. 

CKRMANf Battleship "Pommern" Sunk Off Jutland in the Great 8ea Fi(;ht. 




Fhold fnini J'udcrirood iind Underwood N. Y. 

Hhitish Battle Cruiser "Queen Mary" Sunk in the 
Naval Battle Off Ji'tland. 



NAVY SAVES CIVILIZATION 

''If the British blockade took place, imports into 
Germany of roughly six thousand million marks 
($1,500,000,000) and exports of about eight thousand 
miUion marks ($2,000,000,000) would be interrupted- 
together, an oversea trade of 14,000 millions of marks 
($3,500,000,000). This is assuming that Germany's 
trade relations with Austria-Hungary, Switzerland,' 
Italy, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Norway, and 
Sweden, remained entirely uninfluenced by the war — an 
assumption the optimism of which is self-evident. 
A glance at the figures of the imports shows the fright- 
ful seriousness of the situation. What is the position, 
for example, of the German textile industry if it must 
forego the imports of oversea cotton, jute, and wool? 
If it must forego the 462 miUions ($115,000,000) of 
cotton from the United States, the seventy-three 
millions ($18,250,000) of cotton from Egypt, the fifty- 
eight millions ($14,500,000) of cotton from British 
India, the one hundred millions ($25,000,000) of jute 
from the same countries, and further, the 121 millions 
($30,250,000) of merino wool from Australia, and the 
twenty-three miUions ($5,750,000) of the same mate- 
rial from the Argentine? What could she do in the 
event of a war of longer duration without these raw 
materials which in one year amount in value to 839 
miUions ($207,500,000)? 

''It may also be mentioned that Germany received 
in 1913 alone from the United States about 300 miUions 
($75,000,000) of copper, and further that the petroleum 
import would be as good as completely shut down. 
The German leather industry is largely dependent on 
imports of hides from oversea. The Argentine alone 

73 



NAVY SAVES CIVILIZATION 

sent seventy-one millions ($17,750,000) worth of hides. 
Agriculture would be sensibly injured by the interrup- 
tion of the exports of saltpetre from Chile, which in 
1913 were of the value of not less than 131 millions 
($32,750,000). 

''The significance of an effective blockade of German 
foodstuffs is to be seen in the few following figures: 
The value in marks of wheat from the United States is 
165 millions ($41,250,000), from Russia eighty-one 
millions ($20,250,000), from Canada fifty-one millions 
($12,750,000), from the Argentine seventy-five millions 
($18,750,000)— 372 millions ($93,000,000) from these 
four countries. There will also be a discontinuance of 
the importation from Russia of the following food- 
stuffs: eggs worth eighty millions ($20,000,000), milk 
and butter sixty-three millions ($15,750,000), hay 
thirty-two millions ($8,000,000), lard from the United 
States worth one hundred and twelve millions ($28,- 
000,000) , rice from British India worth forty-six millions 
($21,500,000), and coffee from Brazil worth one hundred 
and fifty-one millions ($37,750,000) should be added to 
the foregoing. No one who contemplates without 
prejudice these few facts, to which many others could 
be added, will be able lightly to estimate the economic 
consequences of a war of long duration. 

''If the British blockade took place," said the 
Vorwdrts, and it dwelt on the consequences of a war of 
long duration. The British blockade was actually 
taking place at the moment these words were written, 
though it was not called by that name for reasons which 
need not here be examined. Acting together with the 
hostility of Russia, which closed the whole of the 
74 



NAVY SAVES CIVILIZATION 

Russian frontier of Germany to the transit of mer- 
chandise either way, the control of sea communication 
established by the fleets of Britain and France had 
already secured the first fruits of those consequences of 
a war of long duration on which the Vorwdrts dwelt 
with such pathetic significance. Those consequences 
were bound to be continuous and cumulative so long 
as the control of sea communications remained unre- 
laxed. The menace of the few German cruisers which 
were still at large was already abated. Already its 
bite had been found to be far less formidable than its 
bark. War premiums on British ships at sea were 
falling fast. German maritime commerce was unin- 
surable, and in fact there was none to insure. Its 
remains were stranded and derelict in many a neutral 
port. One of the greatest dangers, in the opinion of 
some eminent authorities the most serious danger, that 
Britain had to guard against in war was already 
averted, or would remain so as long as the control 
Britain had established over her sea communications 
continued to be effective. This was the first result of 
British naval preparations, the first great manifesta- 
tion of sea power. 

TRANSPORT OF AN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE 

But there was a second result far more dramatic 
than the first, and not less significant in its implica- 
tions, nor in its concrete manifestation of the over- 
whelming power of the sea. The whole of the 
Expeditionary Force, with all its manifold equipment 
for taking and keeping the field, had been silently, 
secretly, swiftly, and safely transported to the conti- 

75 



NAVY SAVES CIVILIZATION 

nent without the shghtest show of opposition from the 
Power which thought itself strong enough to challenge 
the unaggressive mistress of the seas. ''Germany," 
says the Preamble to the Navy Law of 1900, ''must 
possess a battle fleet of such strength that even for the 
most powerful naval adversary a war would involve 
such risks as to make that Power's own supremacy 
doubtful." Such a war had now been forced upon 
Britain, and one of its first accomplished results had 
been the entirely successful completion of an operation 
which, if the enemy had deemed British naval suprem- 
acy even so much as doubtful, he might have been 
expected to put forth his uttermost efforts to impeach. 
That Germany declined the challenge was a proof 
even more striking of the power of superior force at 
sea than the action of the British Navy upon the trade 
routes of the world. 

MAIN OBJECT DESTRUCTION OF ENEMy's FLEET 

The third task of the Navy was the destruction of 
the hostile fleet. However great might be the imme- 
diate consequences of command of the sea, these 
advantages did not constitute the final and paramount 
end at which Britain should aim. That end was the 
overthrow of the enemy's fleets at sea. Britain could 
only wait until the enemy gave her the opportunity, 
but then Britain must make the best of it. The 
essential thing is always that if and when the enemy 
comes out in force he may be encountered as soon as 
may be in superior force, and forthwith brought to 
decisive action in a life-and-death struggle for the 
supreme prize of all naval warfare. Nothing can be 
76 



NAVY SAVES CIVILIZATION 

further from the purpose of a superior navy than to 
keep the enemy's fleet penned up in his ports. '^I beg 
to inform your Lordship," wrote Nelson in 1804, ''that 
the port of Toulon has never been blockaded by me; 
quite the reverse — every opportunity has been offered 
to the enemy to put to sea, for it is there that we hope 
to realize the hopes and expectations of our country 
and I trust they will not be disappointed." But how 
if the enemy will not put to sea with his battle fleet? 
Then Britain could only wait, and in the meanwhile 
use her best endeavors to parry his sporadic acts of 
aggression and to give him as much more than he gets 
as she could manage. The rationale of this type of 
naval warfare — the type most likely to prevail between 
two belligerents, one of whom is appreciably stronger 
in all the elements of naval force than the other — is 
expounded as follows in Thursfield's book on ''Naval 
Warfare": 

"The weaker belligerent will at the outset keep his 
battle fleet in his fortified ports. The stronger may do 
the same, but he will be under no such paramount 
inducement to do so. Both sides will, however, send 
out their torpedo craft and supporting cruisers with 
intent to do as much harm as they can to the armed 
forces of the enemy. If one belligerent can get his 
torpedo craft to sea before the enemy is ready, he will, 
if he is the stronger of the two, forthwith attempt to 
establish as close and sustained a watch of the ports 
sheltering the enemy's armed forces as may be prac- 
ticable; if he is the weaker he will attempt sporadic 
attacks on the ports of his adversary and on such of 
his warships as may be found m the open. . . . Such 

77 



NAVY SAVES CIVILIZATION 

attacks may be very effective and may even go so far 
to redress the balance of naval strength as to encourage 
the originally weaker belligerent to seek a decision in 
the open. But the forces of the stronger belligerent 
must be very badly handled and disposed for anything 
of the kind to take place. The advantage of superior 
force is a tremendous one. If it is associated with 
energy, determination, initiative, and skill of disposition 
no more than equal to those of the assailant, it is over- 
whelming. The sea-keeping capacity, or what has 
been called the enduring mobility, of torpedo craft is 
comparatively small. Their coal supply is limited, 
especially when they are steaming at full speed, and 
they carry no very large reserve of torpedoes. They 
must, therefore, very frequently return to a base to 
replenish their supplies. The superior enemy is, it is 
true, subject to the same disabilities, but being superior 
he has more torpedo craft to spare and more cruisers to 
attack the torpedo craft of the enemy and their own 
escort of cruisers. When the raiding torpedo craft 
return to their base, he will make it very difficult for 
them to get in and just as difficult for them to get out 
again. He will suffer losses, of course, for there is no 
superiority of force that will confer immunity in that 
respect in war. But even between equal forces, equally 
well led and handled, there is no reason to suppose that 
the losses of one side will be more than equal to those 
of the other; whereas if one side is superior to the other 
it is reasonable to suppose that it will inflict greater 
losses on the enemy than it suffers itself, while even if 
the losses are equal the residue of the stronger force 
will still be greater than that of the weaker." 
78 



NAVY SAVES CIVILIZATION 

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 

One must not assume, when the enemy does not come 
out, that the menace and display of superior force in 
every direction have acted as a deterrent and quelled 
initiative to the point of paralysis. No such hypothesis 
can be entertained on the merely negative evidence of a 
situation still obscure and undeveloped. It is far more 
likely that the enemy is preparing some great coup 
requiring him to keep all his available forces in hand 
and to use them when the time comes with the utmost 
vigor and determination. At any rate, that is what 
the British Fleet had to be prepared for. It must 
stand at all times in full readiness to parry the blow, 
whensoever and wheresoever it is delivered; to antici- 
pate it, if it may be, and in any case to meet the enemy 
with a vigor, determination, and skill not inferior to 
his own, and with a force so superior as to crown the 
British arms with victory. No nation which wages 
war on the seas can hope for anything more or better 
than a decision sought and obtained on terms such 
as these. 

CONDITIONS OF A GERMAN INITIATIVE 

In the circumstances which prevailed in the war in 
1914, it was peculiarly probable that the German Navy 
would, at the outset, show an apparent feebleness of 
initiative. In connection with the first great German 
Navy Bill of 1900 it was laid down that the German 
Navy need not be as strong as that of the greatest 
naval Power "for, as a rule, a great naval power will 
not be in a position to concentrate all its forces against 
us." Actually it was the German Navy that was at 

79 



NAVY SAVES CIVILIZATION 

the outset least able "to concentrate all its forces" 
against 'Hhe greatest naval Power." The German 
Fleet was compelled at first to be a two-fold containing 
force — against a formidable military adversary in the 
Baltic and against an overwhelmingly superior naval 
adversary in the North Sea. To go out to fight in the 
North Sea might be to uncover the Baltic coasts of 
Germany to the assaults of Russia from the sea and 
thereby greatly to"^facilitate the military operations of 
Russia in that region. 



80 



CHAPTER VIII 

VEKDUN: THE GREATEST BATTLE 
IN HISTORY 

STRATEGIC SITUATION OF VERDUN AN UNEX- 
AMPLED HUMAN FLOOD A HALF-MILLION MEN IN 

HIDING A GLIMPSE OF THE GERMAN FRONT 

GATHERING FOR THE DEFENSE A BURIED FORT- 
RESS A FRENCH CHARGE DESPERATE HAND-TO- 
HAND FIGHTING BUILDING FORTIFICATIONS UNDER 

FIRE THE HEROIC BLASTING CORPS ADVANCING 

LIKE MOLES FIGHTING WITH UNFIXED BAYONETS 

A BATTLE OF MADMEN IN A VOLCANO INSANE 

FROM WOUNDS. 

THE CITY OF VERDUN itself, in spite of its high, 
encircHng walls and citadel covering an immense sub- 
terranean town, has no longer any miUtary significance; 
it owes its importance to the belt of detached forts 
which, spreading over a circuit of forty-eight kilo- 
meters (thirty miles) , was intended to render stationary 
an entire army, to insure the investment of the city 
in view of a regular siege. General Sere de Rivieres, 
the creator of the intrenched camp, estimated that it 
would take four army corps (160,000 men) to besiege 
it. But the attack had forces of a very different 
character and means of action which Sere de Rivieres 
could not have guessed at, and was made at first on a 
sector of about seven kilometers (four and a half 
6 81 



VERDUN: GREATEST BATTLE 

miles), that is to say, on one-seventh of the hne of 
forts. 

Sere de Rivieres held that an offensive against 
Verdun must of necessity be directed against the works 
on the left (west) bank of the Meuse, which makes a 
curve from Dugny, down stream, to Charny, up 
stream; he thought that the line of the ridges of the 
Meuse was too strong to be the object of an attack, and 
considered hazardous any operations on the central 
sector. Yet this sector was the one attacked. 

AN UNEXAMPLED HUMAN FLOOD 

The enormous human flood, rushing upon a narrow 
stream, is without example in history. It explains the 
successive withdrawals of the Allies' troops up to the 
limits fixed by Sere de Rivieres for the advanced 
defenses toward Douaumont, limits which the enemy 
did not quite reach. 

It is still too early to attempt even a general his- 
torical sketch of the conflict. It will be more useful 
at this juncture to place on record some of the most 
vivid and stirring descriptions by eye witnesses. And 
first it may be well to get a panoramic view of the 
whole battleground as seen by a British correspondent 
with the French Army. 

"Throughout the vast amphitheater,'' he writes, 
'Hwenty miles wide and ten miles deep, not a single 
human being was visible aside from the little group of 
officers around me. Over there to the northwest hes 
the broad dark bank of Malancourt Woods, which we 
know to be a busy hive of Bavarian and Wtirttemberg 
grenadiers, sharprshooters, flame-squirters and gunners. 
82 



VERDUN: GREATEST BATTLE 

Beyond them on the horizon the queer cone of Mont- 
faucon, long the Crown Prince's headquarters, is 
plainly visible. Passing eastward the two French 
bulwarks of Hill 304 and Dead Man's Hill block the 
view northward. Then across the wide and still 
fldbded valley of the Meuse we scan a higher and 
more deeply indented plateau directly north of 
Verdun. 

''Through field-glasses we can follow every rise and 
fall of these forever famous slopes — the long shoulder 
of Talou in the bend of the river and behind in the 
Caures Woods, where the first avalanche fell, the 
Poivre-Louvemont block, which runs back north- 
eastward, and then to our right the Haudromont 
Woods, Douaumont Plateau, and Vaux Woods of bloody 
memories, and in the whole panorama there is not 
visible a single human being. In the hollow behind 
us lies the ancient City of Verdun under a cloud of 
purple smoke that tells the old tale of Teutonic 
vengeance. 

A HALF-MILLION MEN IN HIDING 

''Overhead several aeroplanes are soaring, and west- 
ward I can count five of the anchored observation 
balloons called sausages. Before us a network of 
communication trenches climbs up the open slopes, 
and, although invisible, we know it continues through 
coppices and forest patches toward the summits where 
geyser-like eruptions of earth mark the main stress of 
the artillery duel. The crest of Douaumont, in par- 
ticular, is continually shattered into a crown of cloud 
and around it the succession of gun flashes might be mis- 

83 



VERDUN: GREATEST BATTLE 

taken for heliograph signals were it not for the accom- 
panying muffled roar of explosions. 

''It is what they call a calm day on the front, but 
the sunshine deceives us when it gilds this scene into a 
semblance of peace. Before and around and behind 
us, hidden away underground and in less elaborate 
cover, half a million men armed with every deadly 
device modern science can suggest lie in wait, each host 
watching for any sign of weakness on the part of the 
other. The preparations for a tomorrow, wrapped in 
mystery save to a few chiefs themselves, never for a 
moment cease. 

''Under its empty and smiling surface the bastion 
of Verdun is a vast human ant-hill seething with multi- 
farious labor. The war has gone underground again 
in this sector, and that is the mark that the French 
\ictory is definitive." 

A GLIMPSE OF THE GERMAN FRONT 

A glimpse from the German front is given by an 
American : 

"The important village of Esnes, lying south of 
Hill 304, is already suffering under the hail of German 
shells. There is something awe-inspiring, even stupe- 
fying, about this battle, raging from Fort de Belleville 
to Hill 304, particularly when one remembers that this 
is only one of three sectors of the battle for Verdun. 

"The unequivocal emptiness and loneliness of vast 
battlefields give you a creepy sensation as of phantom 
armies fighting. Their presence, as I gazed today, was 
betrayed only by frequent fitful flashes of flame like 
fireflies on a summer night. One could see miles of 
84 



VERDUN: GREATEST BATTLE 

these fireflies, despite the bright sunlight, each marking 
the mouth of a gun. They made one realize more 
vividly than figures possibly could how thickly the 
iron girdle tightening about Verdun is studded with 
German batteries. Not a man, horse, wagon, or motor 
could be seen moving about that fire-swept zone 
bounded by the rival artilleries. 

"The only human touch was a giant yellow Cy clop's 
eye, blinking at us — a German heliograph in action. 
Turning about, we saw its mate winking back, but the 
theme of its luminous dialogue was not for pubHcation. 

''Even more fascinating than the unique bird's-eye 
view of the Verdun panorama was the grandeur of the 
battle symphony, surpassing anything ever heard before 
on any front. A deep, low, and unchanging basic 
leitmotif was played by the distant guns from as far 
away as the Argonne at the right and from Douaumont 
and the east and south fronts of Verdun to the left. 
Varying melodies, rising and falling in pitch, intensity 
and volume, were played by the nearby guns." 

GATHERING FOR THE DEFENSE 

That same night a writer on the French side wit- 
nessed the silent gathering of forces to defend Avocourt 
Wood, and between dawn and noon the fierce engage- 
ment in which the German attack was defeated. Mark 
how his words bring the stirring picture before the 
mind's eye: 

''At midnight the concentration is completed and 
the reserves are in their appointed places. Is the 
cannonade fiercer or less fierce? I cannot say. The 
noise is so deafening that I have lost the power of 

85- 



VERDUN: GREATEST BATTLE 

judging its intensity. I cannot even distinguish the 
explosion of the shells that fall near the listening post 
where we are sheltered. Only when they burst, the 
post and the earth around it shudder like a ship at 
full speed. Their explosion is but a minor note in the 
hurricane of sound. The French artillery is ' preparing ' 
Avocourt Wood, where the German infantry is massed 
in force. 

'^The searchlights throw patch after patch of trees 
into bright relief, like the swiftly changing scenes of a 
cinematograph. Through binoculars one has a fright- 
ful vision. Not a yard of ground fails to receive the 
shock of a projectile. The solid earth bubbles before 
my eyes. Trees split and spring into the air. It is a 
surface earthquake with nothing spared, nothing 
stable. The Germans have abandoned the outlying 
brushwood and are huddled in the inmost recesses of 
the woods, but the French artillery pursues them 
pitilessly. 

A BURIED FORTRESS 

" Nearly three hundred yards from the rim of brush- 
wood the defenders — Prussians and Bavarians — have 
constructed a kind of redoubt which they expect to be 
the rock on which all attacks will break. The search- 
lights reveal their fortress; it is a wall of earth and 
tree trunks and seems half buried in the ground. 
Now and again in the patches of brightness one sees 
tiny shadows running, falhng, rolling over or flitting 
from trunk to trunk, like frightened night creatures 
surprised by sudden dayhght. It is the soldiers of the 
Kaiser trying vainly to escape from the rain of death, 
86 



VERDUN: GREATEST BATTLE 

"Dawn breaks, and the searchlight beams vanish as 
the first grayness of morning rolls away night's curtain 
from the battlefield. We shiver in our blockhouse; 
is it cold, or nervousness? The officers around me say 
the moment has come. It is an agony of expectation; 
the attack is about to break. 

''A shrill ringing startles every one. The Captain 
springs to the telephone, listens for an instant, and 
then cries: 'All goes well!' in a firm voice. He hangs 
up the receiver, murmuring, ' They're off. ' 

"Our guns still thunder, but they have lengthened 
their range, and the line of smoke-blobs opposite leaps 
forward toward the horizon. Suddenly the mitrail- 
leuses set up a rattle right in front of us. They are 
firing from our front-line trenches in a concave around 
the eastern corner of A vo court Wood. 

A FRENCH CHARGE 

"Some one grabs my arms and points northward. 
Down the slopes of Hill 304 a multitude of nimble 
figures are rushing westward. Their numbers increase; 
armed warriors spring from the ground, as in the old 
Greek legend. 'Our men,' says the officer beside me. 
It is the soldiers of France at the charge. 

"For a while they are sheltered from the German 
fire by a swelling billow of ground. They mount its 
crest and pour headlong downward. Now the pace is 
slower; they advance singly or in scattered groups — 
crawling, leaping, running, each man taking advantage 
of every atom of cover. The leaders have reached the 
first trench that lies across the path; but, see! they pass 
it without hesitating, as though it were a tiny brook. 

87 



VERDUN: GREATEST BATTLE 

"I learned afterward that a hundred tree trunks 
had been arranged Hke bridges all along the trench. 

''Now the whole mass is across and we can see what 
cunning brain has planned the attack. For the 
charging men go straight forward like runners between 
strings, leaving open lanes along which their comrades 
can still fire upon the defenders. 

DESPERATE HAND-TO-HAND FIGHTING 

"At last the edge of the woods is reached, and the 
rattle of the mitrailleuses ceases. It is hand-to-hand 
now in that chaos of storm-tossed earth and tortured 
trees. Rifles are useless there; it is work for bayonet 
or revolver, for butt and club, or even for fists and 
teeth. Corpses are everywhere; the men fall over 
them at each step — some to rise no more— until the 
bodies form veritable heaps, among which the living 
fight and wrestle." 

The fiercest struggle on the sector between 
Douaumont and Vaux was that which raged around 
Caillctte Wood. Eye witnesses describe it as one of 
the most thrilling episodes in the whole great series of 
battles. The importance of the position lay in the 
fact that if the Germans could keep it they could 
force the French to abandon the entire ridge. The 
heroic deeds on both sides in the French recapture of 
this ground are narrated by a staff correspondent in 
the following remarkable story: 

''The Germans had taken Caillette after twelve 
hours' bombardment, which seemed even to beat the 
Verdun record for intensity. The French curtain fire 
had checked their further advance^ and a savage 
88 




The "Stirrup-charge" op the Scots Grays and HighlaxXders at St. Quentin. 
The Scots Grays and the Highlanders together took part in Flanders not in one 
charge but m a series of charges as at Waterloo, bursting into the thick of the enemy, 
the Highlanders holding on to the stirrup leathers of the Grays as the horsemen galloped^ 
ancl attacking hand to hand. The Germans had the surprise of their lives and broke 
and fled before the sudden and unexpected onslaught, suffering severe losses alike from 
the swords of the cavalry and the bayonets of the Highland infantrymen. 



VERDUN: GREATEST BATTLE 

countercharge in the early afternoon had gained for 
the defenders a corpse-strewn welter of splintered trees 
and shell-shattered ground that had been the southern 
corner of the wood. Further charges had broken 
against a massive barricade, the value of which as a 
defense paid good interest on the expenditure of Ger- 
man lives which its construction demanded. 

''A wonderful work had been accompHshed that 
Sunday forenoon in the livid, London-like fog and 
twilight produced by the lowering clouds and battle 
smoke. While the German assault columns in the 
van fought the French hand to hand, picked corps of 
workers behind them formed an amazing human chain 
from the woods to the east over the shoulder of the 
center of the Douaumont slope to the crossroads of a 
network of communication trenches, six hundred yards 
in the rear. 

BUILDING FORTIFICATIONS UNDER FIRE 

"Four deep was this chain, and along its line of 
nearly three thousand men passed an unending stream 
of wooden billets, sandbags, chevaux-de-frise, steel 
shelters, and light mitrailleuses, in a word, all the mate- 
rial for defensive fortifications, like buckets at a 
country fire. 

''Despite the hurricane of French artillery fire, the 
German commander had adopted the only possible 
means of rapid transport over the shell-torn ground, 
covered with debris, over which neither horse nor cart 
could go. Every moment counted. Unless barriers 
rose swiftly the French counter-attacks, already mass- 
ing, would sweep the assailants back into the wood. 

89 



VERDUN: GREATEST BATTLE 

''Cover was disdained. The workers stood at full 
height, and the chain stretched openly across the 
hollows and hillocks, a fair target for the French 
gunners. The latter missed no chance. Again and 
again great rents were torn in the line by the bursting 
melinite, but as coolly as at maneuvers the iron- 
disciplined soldiers of Germany sprang forward from 
shelters to take the places of the fallen, and the work 
went apace. 

''Gradually another line doubled the chain of the 
workers, as the upheaved corpses formed a continuous 
embankment, each additional dead man giving greater 
protection to his comrades, until the barrier began to 
form shape along the diameter of the wood. There 
others were digging and burying logs deep into the 
earth, instalHng shelters and mitrailleuses, or feverishly 
building fortifications. 

"At last the work was ended at fearful cost, but as 
the vanguard sullenly withdrew behind it, from the 
whole length burst a havoc of flame upon the advance- 
ing Frenchmen. Vainly the latter dashed forward. 
They could not pass, and as the evening fell the barrier 
still held, covering the German working parties, 
burrowing like moles in the maze of trenches and 
boyaux. 

THE HEROIC BLASTING CORPS 

"So solid was the barricade, padded with sand bags 
and earthworks, that the artillery fire fell practically 
unavailing, and the French General realized that the 
barrier must be breached by explosives as in Napoleon's 
battles. 
90 



VERDUN: GREATEST BATTLE 

"It was eight o'clock, and already pitch dark in that 
bhghted atmosphere, as a special blasting corps, as 
devoted as the German chain workers, crept forward 
toward the German position. The rest of the French 
waited, sheltered in the ravine east of Douaumont, until 
an explosion should signal the assault. 

"In Indian file, to give the least possible sign of 
their presence to the hostile sentinels, the blasting 
corps advanced in a long line, at first with comparative 
rapidity, only stiffening into the grotesque rigidity of 
simulated death when the searchlights played upon 
them, and resuming progress when the beam shifted; 
then as they approached the barrier they moved slowly 
and more slowly. 

"When they arrived within fifty yards the movement 
of the crawling men became imperceptible; the Ger- 
man starshells and sentinels surpassed the searchlights 
in vigilance. 

"The blasting corps lay at full length, just hke 
hundreds of other motionless forms about them, but 
all were working busily. With a short trowel each 
file leader scuffled the earth from under the body, 
taking care not to raise his arms, and gradually making 
a shallow trench deep enough to hide him. The 
others followed his example until the whole line had 
sunk below the surface. Then the leader began scoop- 
ing gently forward while his followers deepened the 
furrow already made. 

ADVANCING LIKE MOLES 

"Thus literally, inch by inch, the files stole forward, 
sheltered in a narrow ditch from the gusts of German 

91 



VERDUN: GREATEST BATTLE 

mitrailleuse fire that constantly swept the terrain. 
Here and there the sentinel's eye caught a suspicious 
movement and an incautiously raised head sank down, 
pierced by a bullet. But the stealthy mole-like 
advance continued. 

''Hours passed. It was nearly dawn when the 
remnant of the blasting corps reached the barricade 
at last, and hurriedly put their explosives in position. 
Back they wriggled breathlessly. An over-hasty 
movement meant death, yet they must needs hurry 
lest the imminent explosions overwhelm them. 

''Suddenly there comes a roar that dwarfs the 
cannonade, and along the barrier fountains of fire rise 
skyward, hurling a rain of fragments upon what was 
left of the blasting party. 

"The barricade was breached, but seventy-five per 
cent of the devoted corps had given their lives to do it. 

"As the survivors lay exhausted, the attackers 
charged over them, cheering. In the melee that 
followed there was no room to shoot or wield the 
rifle. 

FIGHTING WITH UNFIXED BAYONETS 

"Some of the French fought with unfixed bayonets 
Hke the stabbing swords of the Roman legions. Others 
had knives or clubs. All were battle-frenzied, as only 
Frenchmen can be. 

"The Germans broke, and as the first rays of dawn 
streaked the sky, only a small northern section of the 
wood was still in their hands. There a similar barrier 
stopped progress, and it was evident that the night's 
work must be repeated. But the hearts of the French 
92 



VERDUN: GREATEST BATTLE 

soldiers were leaping with victory as they dug furiously 
to consolidate the ground they had gained, strewn with 
German bodies as thick as leaves. 

'^Over six thousand Germans were counted in a 
section a quarter of a mile square, and the conquerors 
saw why their cannonade had been so ineffective. The 
enemy had piled a second barrier of corpses close 
behind the first, so that the soft human flesh would 
act as a buffer to neutralize the force of the shells." 

These sketchy descriptions give a vivid idea of the 
raging torrent of death around Verdun. Only one 
more needs to the added — that of a French staff 
captain : 

A BATTLE OF MADMEN IN A VOLCANO 

''Verdun has become a battle of madmen in the midst 
of a volcano. Whole regiments melt in a few minutes, 
and others take their places only to perish in the same 
way. Between Saturday morning (May 20) and noon 
Tuesday (May 23) we estimate that the Germans 
used up 100,000 men on the west Meuse front alone. 
That is the price they paid for the recapture of our 
recent gains and the seizure of our outlying positions. 
The valley separating Le Mort Homme from Hill 287 
is choked with bodies. A full brigade was mowed 
down in a quarter hour's holocaust by our machine- 
guns. Le Mort Homme itself passed from our posses- 
sion, but the crescent Bourrus position to the south 
prevents the enemy from utilizing it. 

''The scene there is appalling, but is dwarfed in com- 
parison with fighting around Douaumont. West of 
the Meuse, at least, one dies in the open air, but at 

93 



VERDUN: GREATEST BATTLE 

Douaumont is the horror of darkness, where the men 
fight in tunnels, screaming with the hist of butchery, 
deafened by shells and grenades, stifled by smoke. 

INSANE FROM WOUNDS 

"Even the wounded refuse to abandon the struggle. 
As though possessed by devils, they fight on until they 
fall senseless from loss of blood. A surgeon in a front- 
line post told me that, in a redoubt at the south part 
of the fort, of 200 French dead fully half had more 
than two wounds. Those he was able to treat seemed 
utterly insane. They kept shouting war cries and 
their eyes blazed, and, strangest of all, they appeared 
indifferent to pain. At one moment anesthetics ran 
out owing to the impossibility of bringing forward 
fresh supplies through the bombardment. Arms, even 
legs, were amputated without a groan, and even after- 
ward the men seemed not to have felt the shock. They 
asked for a cigarette or inquired how the battle was 
going. 

''The dogged tenacity needed to continue the resis- 
tance far surpasses the furious elan of the attack. We 
know, too, the Germans cannot long maintain their 
present sacrifices. Since Saturday the enemy has 
lost two, if not three, for each one of us. Every 
bombardment withstood, every rush checked, brings 
nearer the moment of inevitable exhaustion. Then 
will come our recompense for these days of horror. 



94 



CHAPTER IX 
FIGHTING THE SUBMARINE 

SECRET METHODS OF DESTROYING SUBMARINES — • 

THE fishermen's IMPORTANT PART SPOTTING 

THE SUBMARINE WAVE USING THE MICROPHONE 

LIEUTENANT WENNINGER's ADVENTURES CAUGHT 

IN A STEEL NET EXPLOITS OF BRITISH SUBMA- 
RINES — HUNTING SUBMARINES WITH SEAPLANES 

A BOUT WITH A ZEPPELIN. 

IT IS DOUBTFUL whether the principal secret 
means used by the British for combating submarines 
will ever be revealed. What they purchased by 
long, arduous, and terrible experience will not be 
discussed for the enlightenment of foes, but wiU remain 
rather a hidden fund of working knowledge to be 
handed down in training with other valuable tradi- 
tions of the Senior Service. 

The new art of submarine hunting was developed 
with deadly passion after the sinking of the Lusitania. 
With their wide experience in delivering submarine 
attacks in the Heligoland Bight, the Dardanelles, and 
the Baltic, the British officers knew so fully what the 
submarine could do, that they were able to devise ways 
of combating the class of vessels they used so well . These 
Sea Lords also called men of science to their aid, with 
the result that strange devices of many kinds were con- 
structed. Many hundreds of small, fast, handy vessels 

95 



FIGHTING THE SUBMARINE 

were added to the Grand Fleet in order to extend and 
accelerate the operations against U-boats. It was 
during this great increase in the number of British 
warships that one grand and happy discovery was 
made. The long-trained officers and men could be 
relied on to carry out their varied tasks with fine skill 
and flexibility of mind. But long-service naval men 
were not sufficient in number to man the immense 
number of small craft added to the Home Fleet. Even 
the Royal Naval Reserve was not large enough to 
supplement the ordinary ratings; for ships were 
increasing in number, with swarms of new light cruisers, 
destroyers, and little motor-vessels of terrific speed. 
Many fishermen, therefore, were called up for service. 

THE fishermen's IMPORTANT PART 

The fishermen were the least experienced of all the 
British fighting seamen. They began on the humble 
but dangerous job of trawling for mines and keeping 
clear the fairways to England's ports. The noble 
courage of these men was displayed in the Dardanelles 
and on the Belgian coast, where they coolly fished up 
enemy mines under heavy fire from hostile land- 
batteries. This is only what one would expect from 
the best deep-sea fishermen in the world. After years 
of perilous endurance, by which they won food for the 
nation at the risk of their lives, they were not the men 
to ffinch from the work of saving the Fleet. At first, 
however, their labor was rather of a passive kind. 
Few of them could take part in the active work of sink- 
ing enemy ships. Yet by an extraordinary vicissitude 
of circumstances, these quiet, steady drudges of the 
96 



FIGHTING THE SUBMARINE 



Grand Fleet became the most deadly active fighters 
of the modern scientific school. They it was who 
developed submarine killing into a science that stag- 
gered and daunted the most adventurous spirits of the 
German Navy. 

SPOTTING THE SUBMARINE WAVE 

The most important beat along the English shores 
was held by a band of fishermen, with a naval officer 
partly directing them and partly learning from them. 
Manning a small squadron of fishing boats, they 
watched for German submarines as they used to watch 
for a school of mackerel. There was a certain wave 
for which the look-outs always searched. No matter 
at what depth an 800-ton submarine traveled, it 
produced a curious wave on the surface of the water, 
and the trained eyes of the fishermen were able to 
discern this wave with exceptional quickness. Men 
with a naval rating knew how to handle guns, and 
intricate machinery, but deep-sea fishermen, who had 
searched the waters since boyhood for schools of fish, 
had a quicker knack of spotting a submarine wave. 
This disturbance was often very small, especially 
when the water was broken or choppy; but the fisher- 
men on Beat 1 did not let many underwater craft go 
unperceived and unattacked. There was that in their 
hearts that quickened their eyesight. One of them 
said that almost every time when he was watching the 
water he seemed to see the floating hands and drifting 
hair of the women and children who were drowned 
in the Lusitania, A cold, sustained Berserker rage 
against the assassins of the sea nerved the fishermen 
J 97 



FIGHTING THE SUBMARINE 

to their unending, weary, deadly task. Men of slow 
minds, patient and quiet in trouble, and hammered 
by a hard seafaring life into a sort of mild endurance, 
it took much to rouse them into lasting passion; but 
their ordinary quahty of patience became terrible 
when it was bent by the hands of dead women and 
children to the work of retribution. But it may be 
said that any U-boat they perceived far under the 
water seldom rose again. It was trapped — the great, 
steel-built, mechanical fish — before it could rise and use 
its weapons; and as the trap closed round it, some- 
thing came down through the waves and cut the great 
steel fish in two. There was no fight, though the 
German Marine Office often complained that British 
fighting vessels caught their unsuspecting submarines 
on the surface and shattered them with quick-firing 
guns. This was not how the work was carried out, 
though there may have been some artillery duels in 
the opening phase of the campaign. The main work 
of destruction was done by "fishing," with fishermen 
in fishing boats matched against an unseen submarine 
that did not even show its periscope. 

USING THE MICROPHONE 

One of the methods by which the U-boats were 
hunted down was devised by Mr. WiUiam Dudilier, 
who invented a mechanism for the Allies by means of 
which a submarine traveling fuUy submerged could 
be located within a radius of twenty miles. The 
mechanism consisted of a microphone which picked 
up the hum of the electric motors used in a submerged 
submarine. There was a sound-sieve which kept out 
98 7 



FIGHTING THE SUBMARINE 

all other noises coming through the water — the vibra- 
tion of engines, and beating of propellers in passing 
vessels — so that only the whine of electric motors 
used in submarines was picked up. 

Two detectors were submerged at a considerable 
distance apart, and made so that they could be tm'ned 
to get in direct line with the submarine. An increase 
in the volume of sound received told when the detector 
was being turned in the right direction; and when 
both detectors were fully responding, a rapid and 
simple trigonometrical calculation gave the position of 
the submarine. The tract of water covered by the 
detector had been mapped out beforehand in numbered 
squares, known to all the guardships. At the signal, 
they steamed to the square the submarine was 
approaching, and there began their trapping and 
killing operation, while the detectors and the detecting 
officers kept them informed of all further movements 
by the hidden German war-shark. 

There is no special information concerning the 
methods by which the enormous transport of troops 
and war material across the Channel was protected 
against the German submarines. All that we know 
is that this protection became stronger as the war 
went on, the mining of the hospital-ship Anglia being 
a disaster of a rare kind. According to an enemy 
source, the '^Vossische Zeitung," the French and 
British naval authorities closed the narrow seas by 
huge steel nets, sometimes forty miles long, in which 
hostile submarines were entangled until their crews 
were suffocated. The enemy's account, which we 
give for what it is worth, is as follows: 

99 



FIGHTING THE SUBMARINE 



A net has been drawn from Dover to the French coast opposite, 
and another from Portland Bill, near Weymouth, to Cape La 
Hague. Between these two nets there is a space of over one 
hundred and fifty miles, sufficient for all transport service. Further, 
a net extends from the Mull of Kintyre in Scotland to Ireland, and 
another from Carnsore Point in Ireland to St. David's Head in 
South Wales, in order to protect the Irish Sea. 

To allow the passage of trading vessels and the warships of the 
Allies, these nets have been fitted with gates which can be shut 
and opened, like pontoons. These passages are known only to the 
British Admiralty, and are often changed. Since submarines 
can descend to three hundred feet under water, these nets reach 
to sea-bottom, as the Channel is never deeper than two hmidred 
and sixty-five feet. 

The upper edge of the net is fastened to buoys, and both upper 
and lower edges are anchored so that storms and ebb and flood 
tides cannot c' .ange the position of the net or damage it in any way. 
The anchor chains are also so shortened that the buoys are a few 
feet below the level of the water, consequently the submarines 
cannot see the nets either above or below the water. If one of 
them plunges into the net, it becomes entangled and so damaged 
that it is an easy prey to the enemy. 

LIEUTENANT WENNINGER' S ADVENTURES 

Small nets were largely employed by both British 
and German surface vessels engaged in hunting under- 
water craft. From Lieutenant Wenninger, commander 
of the German submarine U17, we have a lively account 
of his escape from the British net throwers off the 
East Coast. He left his base early one morning, and 
passed into the North Sea with hull submerged and 
periscope awash. On looking through the periscope 
he could see a red buoy behind his boat. He looked 
again ten minutes later, and saw the buoy still at the 
same distance behind him. He steered to the right, 
100 



FIGHTING THE SUBMARINE 

he steered to the left, but the buoy followed him. He 
descended deep into the water, and then rose until his 
periscope was again awash, but still saw the buoy 
floating on the surface above him. He had caught the 
chain of the buoy and was dragging it along with him, 
and a small British patrol-boat had observed the 
strange voyage of the buoy, and was intently following 
it, and calling with her wireless. 

[^Wenninger then revealed the fact that the German 
submarines hunted down British ships by means of 
microphone detectors, which have a longer range than 
the periscopes; for he said that his sounding apparatus 
indicated that two steamers were approaching, and 
soon afterwards he saw five British torpedo-boats 
coming from the north. The German officer first 
increased the speed of his vessel with the intention of 
attacking the foremost torpedo craft. But he noticed 
that they were ranging themselves around him in a 
menacing semicircle; and, giving up the idea of an 
attack, he dived as deep as possible, and began to 
crawl away. Suddenly it seemed that an accident had 
happened to his boat. It rolled in a most alarming 
manner, and rose and sank uncontrollably, as though 
the steering-gear was out of order. 

CAUGHT IN A STEEL NET 

But Wenninger discovered that it was not his 
steering-gear which was wrong, but his boat. One of 
the hunting torpedo-boats had steamed in front of him 
and had dropped a steel net. The U-boat had driven 
into it, and had got entangled in an almost hopeless 
manner. For an hour and a half the netting carried 

101 



FIGHTING THE SUBMARINE 

the submarine with it, and though Wenninger made 
every effort to get clear, pumping up and down, and 
trying to work under the net, it was all in vain. His 
boat was always dragged back. He then resolved to 
increase the weight of the submarine as much as 
possible, and attempt to tear through the netting. 
He was fortunate in having pumped in about six tons 
of water when he started. He now filled all the tanks 
to their limit, and drove clear of the netting. He 
then descended as low as he could; and with his menom- 
eter marking thirty meters, he stayed under for 
eighteen hours, but when at last he rose, his menom- 
eter still showed thirty meters, and his compass and 
rudder also refused to work. Moreover, the torpedo- 
boats were still watching close above him. Down 
he went again to the bottom of the sea for another six 
hours, by the end of which time he had repaired his 
steering-gear, and had got his compass to work. Once 
more he lifted his periscope, only to bring a vigilant 
torpedo-boat charging straight at him. So he went 
again to the bottom for two hours, and at night 
managed to crawl away unobserved. 

Lieutenant von Hersing had a somewhat similar 
adventure in a British net on his way to the Mediter- 
ranean and his victories over the Triumph and the 
Majestic. 

EXPLOITS OF BRITISH SUBMARINES 

British submarine boats also had some horrible 
escapes from German nets. The Germans used aircraft 
to spot submerged boats. One of these was seen from 
above when she was lying in the mouth of a German 

102 



FIGHTING THE SUBMARINE 

river. There was only five feet of water over her 
conning-tower, so that even a torpedo-boat would 
strike her while steaming over. The British commander 
thought that all was lost, for he heard the rasp of a 
wire trawl sweeping over his hull. But to save the 
nerves of his men he turned on a gramophone, which 
made a noise covering the deadly outside sound. 
Happily the wire trawl did not catch on the boat, and 
after conducting the search in a most thorough but 
fruitless manner, the Germans went away, and in due 
course the submarine got home. 

In another case a British submarine ran her nose 
into a German net, and rose to the surface so that the 
entanglement could be cut away. But as soon as she 
rose, down fell an aerial bomb. A Zeppelin was 
waiting above the net, while calling with her wireless 
for destroyers to come and finish the British vessel. 
Escaping the bombs, the entangled submarine descended 
very carefully and slowly, in order that the net 
should not get more closely wrapped around her. The 
British commander wriggled and maneuvered his vessel, 
listening for the scrape of the steel links on his hull, and 
guessing blindly at the results of all his workings. At 
last he drew quite clear of the web of death, and sat his 
boat on the bottom of the sea and thought out the 
next move. His problem was to decide whether it 
would be better to push away under water and warn 
other British submarines of the snare, or wait until the 
German destroyers arrived in answer to the call of the 
Zeppelin, and attack them when they thought they 
had an easy victim still tangled up in the net. He 
resolved to try for the double event. When his sound 

103 



FIGHTING THE SUBMARINE 

detectors told him that there were four destroyers 
searching above him, he rose, and going towards the 
sound of the nearest screw, got a torpedo home on one 
of his enemies and crumbled her up. He then dived 
and waited, following the sound of the next destroyer 
that came to take the damaged vessel in tow. Again 
the British submarine rose, and with her last torpedo 
she smashed up the second destroyer. Then she went 
on to the rendezvous, and reached it in time to warn 
other British underwater craft. 

HUNTING SUBMARINES WITH SEAPLANES 

A good deal of the submarine hunting was done by 
British seaplanes and German Zeppelins. British 
naval airmen who flew above the water seeking for 
U-boats running awash or partly submerged, had two 
striking successes. 

On August 26th, 1915, Squadron-Commander Bigs- 
worth, who had previously distinguished himself by 
bombing a Zeppelin that raided Ramsgate, swooped 
down on a German submarine which he had spotted 
off Ostend. 

The U-boat turned her gun on him while he was 
maneuvering for position, and the German shore 
batteries tried to bring him down by a tempest of 
shrapnel. But with great coolness and skill, Squadron- 
Commander Bigsworth descended to 500 feet, and 
after several attempts to get a good line over the 
zigzagging enemy boat, he mastered her movements 
and dropped his bombs with shattering effects. 

Then, on November 28th, 1915, Flight-Lieutenant 
Viney, accompanied by a brilliant French lieutenant, 
104 



Psli , 



Lk 







The German Submabine and How it Wokks. 
Upper left picture shows a section at center of the vessel. Upper 
right view shows the submarine at the surface with two torpedo ■ tubes 
visible at the stern. The large picture illustrates how this monster attacks 
a vessel like the Lusitania by launching a torpedo beneath the water while 
securing its observation through the periscope, just above the waves. V, 



FIGHTING THE SUBMARINE 

the Comte de Singay, attacked another enemy sub- 
marine off the Belgian coast. 

I Lieutenant Viney, as pilot, maneuvered the machine 
and got it in line over the U-boat, and the Comte de 
Singay, as bomb-dropper, launched the missiles which 
destroyed the hostile vessel. 

A BOUT WITH A ZEPPELIN 

On the other hand, a British submarine submerged 
near the German coast, came up for air and found a 
Zeppelin waiting for her. 

The monster airship was hovering so low down that 
her immense shining belly shut out the sky when the 
astonished British officer looked up. She launched her 
bombs at high speed, but by happy chance the E-boat 
had come to the surface beneath the harmless end of 
the aerial leviathan. Moreover, the airship had to 
work against a strong wind, and could not therefore 
quickly get her stinging end over the British submarine, 
which was widely dancing about on a rough sea. 
Meanwhile, the gun was manned by a sailor, who, 
though half-drowned in the breaking seas and washed 
about like a rag, clung on to his gun and got in a few 
shots between the walls of water that broke over him. 
He ripped a large patch out of the Zeppelin, and she 
made away with a list on her; but turned up a fort- 
night later with a new bright piece of covering on her 
port side. The shells supplied at that time to British 
submarines were apparently not powerful enough to 
smash a Zeppelin. 



105 



CHAPTER X 

HOW THE CONQUEST OF THE AIR 
REVOLUTIONIZED WARFARE 

DISPELLED "the FOG OF WAR " BEFORE A GREAT 

ATTACK MASTERY FROM THE BEGINNING A 

THRILLING AERIAL COMBAT FRIGHTFULNESS PRE- 
FERRED BY GERMANS THREE WEEKS OF SUCCESS 

^AIR ATTACKS NEAR LILLE TWENTY-SIX BRITISH 

WINS MODESTY OF THE BRAVE NAPPLEBECK's 

MEMORABLE EXPLOIT EFFECTS OF BRITISH ASCEN- 
DANCY WORK OF THE NAVAL WING. 

THOSE WHO less than half a dozen years ago, 
crowded to the flying meetings and watched with 
fascination those gallant pioneers of aviation — the 
Wrights, Bleroit, Hubert Latham, Bertram Dickson, 
Colonel Cody, and the rest — disporting themselves in 
space, little guessed that they were assisting at the 
development of a science which was calculated to 
affect war more deeply than any invention since the 
magazine rifle. For the aeroplane has revolutionized 
warfare. Its effect has been more far-reaching than 
even the most sanguine supporter of the new arm 
ever dared to prophesy. Future wars can never be 
carried on without aeroplanes. 

Curiously enough, however, its usefulness has not 
laid along the lines foretold by its disciples in the past. 
The areoplane has not taken the place of troops as a 
106 



CONQUEST OF THE AIR 

weapon of attack. Its enormous importance lies in its 
functions as a scout. It has done away forever with 
'Hhe fog of war." It has become the eyes of the army. 
By means of it the commanders, working undisturbed 
with their maps and telephones and wireless at the 
headquarters far in the rear, are able to spy out the 
enemy's movements, to see deep back into the enemy's 
country 

BEFORE A GREAT ATTACK 

When military operations are in progress, the activity 
in the air increases. At such a time it is essential for 
the army command to be kept exactly and promptly 
informed of the precise strength of the enemy at given 
points, and of the location and disposition of his 
reserves. Every move is preceded by days of incessant 
flying on the part of the airmen reconnoitring or raiding 
strategic points in the enemy lines. Once the move 
has started, in addition to the aeroplanes which are 
out from dawn to dusk ''spotting" for the guns, others 
are despatched on bombing expeditions against the 
enemy lines of communication, to destroy the rail- 
way, to blow up trains and bridges — in short, to do 
everything possible to delay the bringing up of 
reinforcements. 

Finally, the aeroplane has come to be regarded as 
the most efficient defense against hostile aircraft. 
Therefore, aeroplanes are employed day after day to 
chase off the enemy airmen who sally forth over the 
lines on reconnaissances or bombing raids. In 1915, 
London awakened to the fact that the aeroplane, 
properly utilized, is a more effective source of protection 

107 



CONQUEST OF THE AIR 

against Zeppelin raiders than any number of anti-air- 
craft guns, and on the rare occasions that hostile airships 
ventured forth over the towns and villages in the 
British zone of operations in France and Belgium, the 
British aeroplanes drove the invader off before he had 
time to inflict any great damage. 

It was the British military airmen who discovered 
Von Kluck's famous swing-round from his march on 
Paris to the southeast, and by their timely intimation 
of this change of direction enabled the Allies to make 
in season those dispositions which inflicted on the 
Germans the great decisive defeat of the war. 

MASTERY FROM THE BEGINNING 

These were the early days of the war, but, though 
the British airmen were almost in the learning stage, 
they showed themselves the possessors of all that 
infinite resource and glorious courage which still dis- 
tinguish them now that they have perfected and 
mastered the whole theory of aviation in war. Thus 
in September, 1914, a pilot and observer of the Royal 
Flying Corps were forced by engine trouble to land in 
the enemy lines. They sprang out of their machine 
and bolted for cover to a small wood. The Germans 
lost no time in possessing themselves Jof the British 
aeroplane, but failed to find the prisoners, who even- 
tually managed to creep away under cover of darkness 
to the steep banks of the Aisne. Here they cast away 
their Flying Corps field-boots, and, descending to the 
water, swam across in the dark, and reached their 
aerodrome in safety, but barefoot. 

A little later one of the most successful British airmen 
108 



CONQUEST OF THE AIR 

was out scouting in a single-seater monoplane when 
he came across a German machine. Being alone he 
had no rifle, so promptly maneuvered his monoplane 
so as to get in a revolver shot at the enemy. As he was 
mounting above the German, the German observer 
winged him with a well-aimed rifle shot. The Briton 
never lost his presence of mind, but turned and flew 
for home, landing in the British lines, close to a motor- 
ambulance, which carried him off to the nearest dressing 
station. 

A THRILLING AERIAL COMBAT 

The importance of the position of the propeller in 
an enemy machine is seen in the following account of 
a thrilling aerial combat which took place between a 
British and a German airman on the Aisne. A British 
airman, who was flying a speedy scout, caught up with 
a German biplane of the ''pusher" type (i. e. with the 
propeller behind the driving seat), which he recognized 
to be an Otto machine. At first sight, therefore, he 
was able to make two important observations — namely, 
that he had the advantage of speed, and that his 
adversary, owing to the position of his propeller, could 
not fire from behind. The Briton had two rifles 
clamped down one on either side of his engine, and at 
once started out after the enemy, taking good care to 
keep well in the latter's wake. At sixty yards' range 
he opened fire without any apparent result; then, as 
his speed was bearing him past his opponent, he turned 
and came back and gave the Boche the contents of the 
other rifle. The German wavered and began to 
descend. The British airman's rifles were empty. 

109 



CONQUEST OF THE AIR 

He was alone. He had no one to reload. Depressing 
the elevating plane, he planed down at a dizzy angle, 
and was thus able to take his hands off his steering 
wheel for a moment and recharge his weapons. The 
rifles jammed, but the airman managed to cram four 
cartridges home, and loosed them off at the stern of 
his adversary, who a minute later disappeared in a 
swelling cloud-bank. The Briton instantly dropped 
speedily down through the sky after him, but in tha 
clear azure below could see no trace of his enemy, who 
must have come to earth in the French lines over which 
they had been maneuvering. 

FRIGHTFULNESS PREFERRED BY GERMANS 

At Bailleul on October 21st, 1914, a German airman 
dropped a bomb on the hospital. The projectile had 
a so-called ''sensitive" fuse — that is to say, a fuse that 
would make it explode on impact. The shell burst 
accordingly as it went through the roof, and the greater 
part of the force was expanded in mid-air in one of the 
wards which forty patients had just left. A solitary 
patient remained, and he was wounded. 

On the same day two German airmen who were 
brought down with their aeroplanes in the British lines 
were made to cut a very sorry figure. Their machine 
fell into a part of the line held by the Indian troops. 
On searching the machine the British officers found 
large numbers of circulars, written in very faulty Hindi, 
inciting the Indians to mutiny, and announcing that the 
Caliph had proclaimed the Jehad, or Holy war. The 
German airmen watched with amazement the British 
oflicers distributing these circulars to the Indian troops 
110 



CONQUEST OF THE AIR 

who, to the further stupefaction of the discomfited 
Boches, laughed with childish glee at the clumsy 
grammatical mistakes of the German Orientalist who 
had composed the proclamation. For a time the 
Germans were extremely uncomfortable, for they were 
apprehensive as to the penalty for their violation of 
The Hague Convention by inciting belligerent troops 
to mutiny. However they suffered no harm, but they 
undoubtedly received an unforgetable lesson on Great 
Britain's method of Imperial administration. 

On November 1st the German Emperor was given 
an ocular demonstration of the prowess of the British 
airman, which he is not likely to forget to the end of 
his days. The Emperor had been visiting Thielt, in 
Belgium, where the German General Headquarters 
were then established. There is every reason to 
believe that his Majesty was in the General Staff 
building, when a British airman created something 
like a panic by suddenly appearing from the clouds 
and dropping bombs into the middle of a knot of 
motor-cars assembled outside. By way of retaliation 
the Germans bombarded Furnes from the air on the 
following day, in the belief that President Poincare was 
in the place on a visit to the Belgian lines. 

The British success at Neuve Chapelle was largely 
due to the invaluable co-operation of the military air 
service with the Staff. It was the British airmen who 
were in the main responsible for the selection of the 
slope running from the village of Neuve Chapelle to the 
Aubers-Fromelles ridge as the most suitable spot for 
a thrust at the enemy line. They ascertained the 
weakness of the Germans at that point and were able 

111 



CONQUEST OF THE AIR 

moreover, to undertake that a series of carefully- 
prepared and daringly-executed air raids on important 
places on the German lines of communication would 
give the British sixty-six hours in which to make good 
any advantage they might gain before the enemy 
could bring up reinforcements. 

THREE WEEKS OF SUCCESS 

During the fighting that took place in the spring and 
summer, the Second Battle of Ypres, the British 
offensive on May 9th against the Fromelles ridge, the 
operations in the Festubert region and about the 
ruined Chateau of Hooge, the aeroplanes continued to 
play their part quietly, modestly, usefully. But it 
was in the great Franco-British advance on September 
25th that the airmen on the British front again had 
a great opportunity for showing what they had learned 
in thirteen months' active service. They availed them- 
selves of the opportunity to the full, and once more 
earned the admiration of their enemy and the warm 
eulogy of their commanders. 

Probably all records for air mileage per day were 
eclipsed by the Royal Flying Corps in the three weeks 
or so preceding the advance against Loos on September 
25th, 1915. The weather was by no means invariably 
favorable, but, notwithstanding this, the British air- 
men were out daily on reconnaissances of the enemy 
trenches, watching for any indication of the Boches 
being aware of the great events taking place, or of 
taking measures to meet the ''big push." On more 
than one occasion British aeroplanes remained for two 
hours at a stretch over the German lineS; sometimes 
U2 



CONQUEST OF THE AIR 

hovering at no greater altitude than seven thousand 
feet, the low-lying clouds preventing reconnaissance 
from anything like a safe distance above the enemy 
anti-aircraft batteries. 

AIR ATTACKS NEAR LILLE 

The great offensive was preceded by air attacks on 
the German railway communications south of Lille, 
the routes by which they would naturally bring 
reinforcements from Belgium. Events subsequently 
showed that these systematic air raids materially 
delayed the arrival of reinforcements to stem the col- 
lapse of the German front line under the sledge-hammer 
blows struck by the British First and Fourth Corps. 
On September 23d, two days before the day fixed for 
the attack, a German goods train was wrecked on the 
railway near Lille, and the line torn up in several places 
by bombs dropped from our aeroplanes. On the 
following day the railway was damaged in three places, 
while on the morning of the attack, despite hazy 
weather, the British airmen sallied forth once more and 
bombed a train rushing up troops to the Loos region, 
damaging three coaches, and afterwards derailing a 
goods train and tearing up the railway line at three 
points. 

On the day after the attack, when the British troops 
were well through the German front line, and looked 
as though they would get to Lens, one of the British 
airmen appeared over the station of Loffre, east of 
Douai, two most important German military centers, 
and dropped a bomb on a troop train there. As the 
airman sped away he noticed that the German soldiers 

8 113 



CONQUEST OF THE AIR 

were swarming out of the train, and were gathering 
with a number of railway officials about the wrecked 
carriages. This airman must have remembered the 
feat of his comrade-in-arms at Courtrai during the 
Neuve Chapelle affair, for he turned back, and, glid- 
ing down to only about five hundred feet above the 
ground, unloosed a 110-pound bomb, which he carried 
slung beneath his machine, into the midst of the 
group. 

TWENTY-SIX BRITISH WINS 

On the same day the engine and six coaches of a troop 
train were derailed by aerial bombs dropped on the 
railway at Rosult, near St. Amand, on the line from 
Valenciennes to Orchies. Probably the most destruc- 
tive raid of the British flying men, however, was the 
air attack on the new railway station at Valenciennes, 
a railway junction of vital military importance to the 
enemy, as here the lines from Brussels and Maubeuge 
meet with the lines going out to Lille, Cambria, Toumai, 
and Douai, the great military supply depots in the 
northern part of the German western front. That the 
Britons were not permitted to accomplish these fine 
feats unopposed is shown by the circumstance that in 
the single week preceding the British offensive there 
were no less than twenty-seven fights in the air between 
British and German machines, all of which save one, 
terminated in favor of the British. One German 
machine was definitely known to have been wrecked. 

Every time an aeroplane went out on duty over 
the British lines on the western front its occupants 
braved death in half a dozen forms. The one thought 
114 



CONQUEST OF THE AIR 

inspiring every member of the Royal Flying Corps 
was to make his report — that is to say, to accomplish 
his mission successfully and return home to submit the 
results to headquarters. As the aeroplane hovered 
out over the German lines the German anti-aircraft 
batteries spat out their pear-shaped globes of pure 
white smoke with the characteristic ''pom — pom — 
pom," a sound which will haunt forever the memory 
of every man who has served in the trenches on the 
western front. The German firing-line machine-guns 
and rifles poured their stream of lead upwards against 
the invader in the sky, but the pilot kept his aeroplane 
steadily on its course with one thought uppermost — 
to make that report. 

MODESTY OF THE BRAVE 

There are dangers in flying quite remote from war, 
those defects of the engine or in construction which no 
amount of care can guard against with absolute 
certainty. To these must be added the ever-present 
risk that a rifle bullet or the merest splinter of shell 
may, all unknown to the pilot, inflict irreparable injury 
on a vital part of the machine which will reveal itself 
at a critical moment in his flight, perhaps when he is 
assailed in the air by two or three hostile aeroplanes. 
Death from machine-gun, rifle, or shell fire in the air, 
death on the cruel earth many thousand feet below, 
wounds, capture — these are the risks which confront 
every member of the Royal Flying Corps as he fares 
forth on his frail bark of canvas, wood, and metal over 
the tortuous scars in the earth's surface marking the 
belligerent trench lines. But such was the spirit of 

115 



CONQUEST OF THE AIR 

the Royal Flying Corps — part and parcel, be it said, of 
the spirit of the British Army in the field — that the 
British airmen counted these risks as nought, so be it 
they might ''make their report." 

Thus it is that the annals of the Royal Flying Corps 
in this war may be said to be the most amazing record 
of thrilling adventures which the world has ever known. 
The rules of the corps prevent the names of the heroes 
of some of the most fantastic of these experiences from 
being given, but this rule may be relaxed in the case of 
three gallant airmen who made the supreme sacrifice 
of their lives in the country's service. They are 
Rhodes-Moorehouse, V.C; Mapplebeck, D.S.O.; and 
J. Aidan Liddell, V.C; all of whom were killed flying. 

"Eye-Witness" made Briton ring with the heroism 
of Rhodes-Moorehouse. While on reconnaissance work 
he sustained a terrible wound from a shrapnel which 
burst close beside his machine and maimed him in an 
appalling way. Nevertheless, he fulfilled his mission, 
and then turned his machine for home, and landed at 
his point of departure with a grim jest on his lips at 
the expense of himself for the horrifying nature of his 
injuries. Before he would consent to be attended by 
the doctor, he insisted that he must "make his report." 
That was his honorable epitaph : " He made his report," 
for when the doctors came to him he was past human 
aid. 

Captain Aidan Liddell, a comparative newcomer to 
flying, came from a famous Highland regiment. At 
the beginning of August, 1915, he was piloting his 
machine on a strategical reconnaissance in Belgium in 
the heart of the enemy's country when a high-explosive 
116 



CONQUEST OF THE AIR 

shrapnel from a German anti-aircraft gun burst right 
over his machine. His leg was simply riddled with 
bullets, and all but severed. The pilot lost conscious- 
ness on the spot and collapsed over his steering-wheel, 
while, to the horror of the observer, the machine dived 
nose foremost earthwards. The jerk jammed Liddell 
hard between the steering-wheel and the sides of the 
driving-seat, while it flung the observer between the 
machine-gun and the struts, fortunately enough, as it 
proved, for the aeroplane proceeded to turn a complete 
somersault. Luckily it was at a great height when the 
mishap occurred, and it thus had time to right itself. 

Liddell regained consciousness as the machine re- 
gained a horizontal position. Faint as he was with the 
loss of blood — he had some fifty separate wounds in his 
leg — he turned the machine round and made off straight 
across country for a Belgian aerodrome which he knew 
to be his nearest haven. He knew that he could not 
last very long, so would not waste time by climbing 
out of range of the enemy guns, but headed straight 
for the Belgian lines. He made a good landing at the 
flying ground, and said to those who ran forward to 
greet him: ''You must lift me out. If I move I am 
afraid that my leg will drop off." 

This brave man died in hospital a week or so after- 
wards without living to receive the Victoria Cross which 
was laid on his bier in recompense for his deathless 
endurance. 

mapplebeck's memorable exploit 

Lieutenant Mapplebeck, who was killed while flying 
a new machine in England, was the hero of one of the 

117 



CONQUEST OF THE AIR 

most remarkable adventures of the war. He was shot 
down on a reconnaissance flight one day in the neigh- 
borhood of a large town in the German lines. He was 
able to make a landing, but as his engine was so badly 
damaged he could not hope to get away, he concealed 
himself, abandoning his aeroplane to the enemy. 
Presently German troops arrived, and started with 
loud hallo to search for the enemy airman, whom they 
knew must be somewhere in the vicinity. 

They searched in vain. This remarkable young 
man, who spoke English, French, Flemish, German, and 
Dutch with equal fluency, managed to procure civilian 
clothing, and for about a week actually mixed with 
the German soldiers in the town, and even went so far 
as to attend their sports. The town was covered with 
placards announcing the flight of a British airman, and 
threatening dire penalties on whomsoever should ven- 
ture to harbor him. Mapplebeck eventually succeeded 
in making his way through Belgium into Holland, 
doing thirty miles a day, a noteworthy performance, 
seeing that, as the result of an accident, one of his legs 
was shorter than the other. In a month he was flying 
at the front again. 

EFFECTS OF BRITISH ASCENDANCY 

The tenacity and fearlessness wherewith British air- 
men engaged and pursued any hostile machine they 
encountered gave the Germans a very healthy respect 
for their aerial prowess. For many months the ascend- 
ancy established by British fliers over the enemy was 
so complete that the German airman seldom waited 
to engage battle in the air, but made for home as soon 
118 



CONQUEST OF THE AIR 

as it appeared that the advantage was not immediately 
and obviously on his side. The British airman on the 
contrary, was not only always ready for a fight, but 
looking for a chance to close with the enemy, and 
destroy him in the air or drive him to a forced landing. 

One day in October, 1915, a British aeroplane with 
pilot and observer sighted on patrol duty two German 
machines approaching from the eastward — that is to 
say, from the enemy's country. They let the first 
German machine come within fifteen yards, and then 
opened with their machine-gun. The German did not 
wait to reply. He hurriedly dived for the earth at a 
very steep angle. The Briton did the same, the pilot 
firing at the enemy as long as he had a clear field of 
vision, and then passing the light automatic gun, 
with which British aeroplanes were fitted, to the 
observer, who gave the Boche the rest of the ''drum" 
(or charger containing forty-seven cartridges). 

The German machine, which was obviously quite 
out of hand, crashed heavily to earth in the British 
lines. The British troops found the pilot stone dead 
in his seat, with a bullet through his heart, and the 
observer wounded. The British airman characteris- 
tically disdained to do any gloating over his prize, but 
without even troubling to look at it, clambered aloft 
again, without landing, and went after the second 
German machine. Unfortunately the engine of the 
British aeroplane began to miss fire, so the chase had to 
be abandoned, and the airmen were compelled to 
content themselves with a single prize. 

A few days after this a British machine, while 
patrolling — i.e. looking out for German machines on 

ai9 



CONQUEST OF THE AIR 



reconnaissances — saw a British aeroplane hotly pursued 
by a German. The British patroUer, who was at a 
very great height, dipped downwards to attack the 
Boche. The latter seemed to lose his head for the 
moment, for he turned and flew directly beneath his 
two assailants, who ''let him have it" from their 
machine-guns as he passed. The British machine which 
the German had been pursuing went away, leaving the 
field to the patroller and the foe, who circled round 
each other, firing rapidly, drawing ever nearer to the 
earth. Suddenly the German dived for his lines under 
a steady stream of fire from the British machine, turned, 
"banked" steeply, lost his equilibrium, and flopped 
up-side-down to earth. Pilot and observer were killed. 
No modern battle picture would be complete without 
the aeroplane, glittering up very high aloft, ringed 
about with tiny white balls of shrapnel smoke gleaming 
dead white against the background of clouds or clear 
sky. The airmen were highly popular figures with the 
men in the firing-line. The man in the trenches knew 
that the aeroplane was, so to speak, the periscope of the 
Army. Every aeroplane he saw he knew to be out 
guarding against any form of ''f rightfulness" that the 
ingenious German might be preparing for him — the 
man in the fire-trench — the man who was first to get 
the knocks. If a well-concealed battery made itself 
a nuisance by shelling the British trenches, smashing 
up the dug-outs, and knocking down the parapet, word 
was sent back post-haste by telephone for an aeroplane 
to locate the hidden nuisance and reveal its emplace- 
ment to British guns. If the British patrols ascertained 
that undue activity was going on in the trenches 
120 



2 CD 3 




A«S;:^^»»:";';;V,. :, ■■ apHMS3!^?ffl» 




< t; 



O ,(U 



CONQUEST OF THE AIR 

opposite them, if they heard the clink of entrenching 
tools night after night, and by day caught glimpses 
of fresh earth accumulating behind the enemy trenches, 
an aeroplane was despatched for a '^ look-see." 

WORK OF THE NAVAL WING 

A word should be said of the splendid work accom- 
plished by the Naval Wing of the Royal Flying Corps, 
which for long had its headquarters at Dunkirk, and 
distinguished itself by a number of daring and successful 
raids into Belgium and Germany, principally against 
the sheds in which the Germans harbored their Zep- 
pelins with a view to air raids on England. On 
September 22d, 1914, Flight-Lieutenant Collet flew 
to Diisseldorf — a distance of some two hundred miles 
from his point of departure — and, descending to a 
height of only four hundred feet, dropped his bombs 
upon the Zeppelin shed there. Though the airman 
had his machine hit, he managed to return in safety. 
About the same time a similar raid was executed on 
Cologne, but the aeroplanes returned without dropping 
their bombs, having been prevented by the haze from 
locating the airship sheds. In the following month — 
on October 8th — two parties of aeroplanes repeated 
these performances. At Diisseldorf, Lieutenant Marix 
literally flattened out the Zeppelin shed and the Zep- 
pelin harbored there, and though the raiders' machines 
were damaged, they all managed to get back safely. 
At Cologne the great military railway-station was 
badly damaged. 



m 



CHAPTER XI 

THE HEROIC STRUGGLE ON THE GALLI- 
POLI PENINSULA 

LEADERS WORTHY OF THEIR MEN EVERYTHING 

AGAINST THE ALLIES COMBINED OPERATION HELD 

UP GREAT CHARGE AT KRITHIA FOOTING GAINED 

BELOW ACHI BABA GERMAN SUBIVL^RINES INTER- 
VENE — MEETING THE NEW MENACE HUNTER- 

WESTON's ruse NAVAL DIVISION'S BRILLIANT 

WORK TURKS' DEADLY COUNTER-ATTACK MAN- 
CHESTER'S GREAT EXPLOIT. 

APPARENTLY we have to go back to the Walcheren 
Expedition to find a parallel to the circumstances in 
which the Dardanelles campaign was conceived. For, 
though the Crimean War was sadly muddled, the 
mistakes there do not seem to have been so serious as 
were those which the British, Australasian, and Indian 
troops were asked to retrieve along the gateway 
between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Sir 
Ian Hamilton was a commander of experience, and he 
was admirably served by subordinate officers like 
Generals Sir W. R. Birdwood and Hunter- Weston, of 
whom it is sufficient to say that they were worthy of 
the men they led into action. The heroism of the 
troops was marvelous, and solely by their indomitable 
tenacity they won a narrow footing along the cliffs 
below the mountain fortresses, from which the Germans 
122 



THE HEROIC STRUGGLE 

and Turks continued to sweep every landing-place 
with shell fire. 

But after a footing had been won below Krithia and 
north of Gaba Tepe, the attacking forces could make no 
further progress of importance. There mustered at first 
scarcely two army corps of them, including the 29th Divi- 
sion, the Australian and New Zealand Expeditionary 
Force, the Naval Division, an Indian Brigade, and a 
French division composed of Zouaves, African troops, and 
some white battalions. After the losses of the landing 
battles, Sir Ian Hamilton must have had less than 35,000 
bayonets immediately at hand for the desperate work of a 
thrusting attack at the seat of power of the Ottoman Em- 
pire, which could draw upon half a million or more men for 
the defense of the road to Constantinople. As a matter 
of fact, the Turco-German commanders concentrated 
all their principal armies on the defense of the Dar- 
danelles. The campaign against Egypt was discon- 
tinued, and the attack on Russia across the Caucasus was 
reduced to an unimportant defensive battle. Even the 
comparatively small Indo-British army advancing along 
the Euphrates up towards Bagdad was only opposed by 
a single weak Turkish army corps. All the main military 
resources of one of the greatest warrior races in the world 
were organized by capable German officers and set in a 
series of almost impregnable mountain defenses, in order 
to safeguard the channel forts, which prevented the 
allied fleet from forcing the waterway to victory. 

EVERYTHING AGAINST THE ALLIES 

There were never less than 150,000 Turkish soldiers, 
with thousands of German engineers and artillerymen, 

123 



THE HEROIC STRUGGLE 

holding the entrenched heights between Achi Baba and 
Sari Bair. It mattered Httle if the Allies put more 
than their number of foes out of action. New Turkish 
armies poured down the mainland track to Gallipoli, 
or were carried across the Sea of Marmora in trans- 
ports. No wonder the AlHes' advance was slow 
and their casualty lists terribly heavy. Everything 
was against them. The enemy was deeply entrenched 
on one of the finest lines of natural fortifications in the 
world, with guns and howitzers commanding every 
site occupied by the allied troops. The enemy could 
bring most of his provisions and supplies up by road 
at night, with little or no interference from the fire 
of the Allies' ships, and a flotilla of small sailing vessels, 
plying across the Sea of Marmora greatly assisted in 
the provisioning of the defending army. There was 
scarcely any water in that part of the mountainous 
Peninsula occupied by the attacking troops. Even 
their machine-guns at times became unworkable 
through want of water in the jackets to keep the barrels 
cool. Everything necessary for existence had also 
to brought to the bombarded beaches, and thence 
carried laboriously by hand through narrow com- 
munication trenches to the men in the firing-line. As 
summer came on, the white troops were almost pros- 
trated by the tropical heat, and plagued by a monstrous 
number of flies. It became at last a feat of great 
ingenuity to swallow food without eating live flies 
also. The Anzacs, as the men of the Australian and 
New Zealand Army Corps were called, reverted to a 
state of picturesque savagery. They left off all their 
clothes, except for one garment around their loins, and 
124 



THE HEROIC STRUGGLE 

their bare bodies were baked to a Red Indian color, 
so that they looked at last, by reason of their state of 
nature and their magnificent physique, more terrifying 
barbarians than the Turks opposed to them. 

At the end of April, 1915, the allied troops in the 
southern end of the Peninsula had forced their way 
forward for some five hundred yards from their land- 
ing-places. By this time both sides showed signs of 
exhaustion, but Sir Ian Hamilton resolutely judged 
that the troops who could first summon up spirit to 
make another attack would win some hundreds of 
yards of ground. And as his own force was crowded 
together under gun fire in a very narrow space, he 
determined to be the first to strike out. He therefore 
brought the 2d Australian and New Zealand Infantry 
Brigades down from the Sari Bair region, and re- 
arranged the 29th Division into four brigades, com- 
posed of the 87th and 88th Brigades, the Lancashire 
Territorial Brigade, and the 29th Indian Infantry 
Brigade. Then with the remnant of his forces he 
formed a new composite division, which he used as a 
general reserve, after reinforcing the French division 
with the 2d Naval Brigade. 

GREAT CHARGE AT KRITHIA — COMBINED OPERATION 

HELD UP 

The 29th Division went into action at 11 a. m. on 
May 6th, when it moved out leftward, on the south- 
east side of Krithia. Half an hour afterwards the 
French force on the right also advanced along the 
lower slopes of the river ridge of the Kereves Dere. 
The combined operation, however, made little progress. 

125 



THE HEROIC STRUGGLE 

The British troops were held up outside a pine wood, 
which the enemy had transformed into a machine-gun 
redoubt; and the French also were checked by a terrible 
fire from a strong fieldwork after reaching the crest of 
the ridge. The following morning the Lancashire 
Territorials charged gallantly up the slope towards 
Krithia. They were caught by the German machine- 
guns; but as they retired, another Territorial force, 
the Queen's Edinburgh Rifles, took the pine wood by 
a magnificent rush. Besides dislodging the machine- 
gun parties, they brought down Turkish snipers work- 
ing from wooden platforms on the trees, and thus 
cleared the way for the general advance. But just as 
all seemed to be going well, and the Inniskilling Fusiliers 
came up to maintain the hold on the pine wood, the 
Turks, by a gallant charge, won back this clump of 
trees in the center. Nevertheless, the Inniskillings 
went on and captured three enemy trenches, till in 
the afternoon all the advance was again held up by 
an enfilading fire from hostile machine-guns hidden 
on a ridge between the gully running towards Krithia 
and the sea. The operation looked like ending in a 
stalemate; but neither General Hunter- Weston, one 
of the greatest thrusters in the army, nor Sir Ian 
Hamilton, a man with all the fighting temperament of 
the Highlander, would submit to the check. The 
commander threw in all his reserves, and ordered a 
general advance; and despite their weariness and their 
heavy losses, the men rose with a will, and in a great 
bayonet charge recaptured the pine wood and advanced 
nearly all their line some three hundred yards. 

The troops were quite worn out, but Sir Ian 
126 



THE HEROIC STRUGGLE 

Hamilton kept most of them working when darkness 
fell at the task of consolidating their new position. 
His airmen had told him that the enemy were receiving 
reinforcements, and he was resolved to make one more 
push before the new hostile forces got into position. 
At half -past ten the next morning (May 7th) he flung 
out the New Zealand Brigade, and won another two 
hundred yards in front of the pine trees. Then, at 
half -past four in the afternoon, he threw the 2d Aus- 
tralian Brigade into his front, and sent his whole line 
forward against Krithia. The sparkle of the bayonets 
could be seen through the smoke of shells from the 
ships' guns and heavy artillery, as the attacking 
troops went forward in a long line stretching right 
across the Peninsula. The Senegalese sharpshooters 
were broken by the storm of heavy shells from the 
ridge by Kereves Dere. But the black troops were 
rallied by their officers, and sent forward in another 
rush, supported by a small column of French soldiers. 
Their figures were seen outlined against the sky on 
the crest of their ridge just as darkness fell and veiled 
all the battlefield. 

FOOTING GAINED BELOW ACHI BABA 

When morning came. Sir Ian Hamilton found that the 
French had captured the machine-gun redoubt on the 
ridge, and had entrenched in front of Zimmerman Farm. 
On the right of the British line the 87th Brigade, 
fighting in the darkness, had taken another two hundred 
yards of ground; while the Australian Brigade, though 
swept by shrapnel, machine-gun, and rifle fire, extended 
the Allies' front for another four hundred yards. 

127 



THE HEROIC STRUGGLE 

The gain of ground in the three days' battle was only 
six hundred yards on the right, and four hundred 
yards on the left-center. It does not look much on 
the map, but in practice it meant life instead of death, 
for it gave the allied troops just living room on the tip 
of the Peninsula, enabling them to scatter sufficiently 
in bivouacs in a network of narrow ditches, to avoid 
annihilation from the high-placed enemy batteries. 
Sir Ian Hamilton confessed that it was only on May 
10, 1915, that he felt that his footing below Achi 
Baba was fairly secure. 

Meanwhile the officer commanding the 6th Gurkhas 
had begun on his own initiative the new method of 
advancing by local efforts. Between Krithia and the 
open sea there was a deep, picturesque river bed, 
known on the map as the Saghir Dere, and known in 
the camp as Gully Ravine, and crowned seaward by a 
steep bluff. Below the bluff was Y Beach, where some 
of the troops had fought their first landing battle. 
Since then the enemy had transformed the bluff into 
a powerful fortress, from which a number of machine- 
guns had continually broken up the left wing of our 
attacks. To assail the fortified cliff across the gully 
was madness, but the mountaineers of Nepal worked 
their way along the shore, and then started in the 
darkness to crawl up the steep height on their hands 
and knees. They reached the top, but failed to sur- 
prise the enemy, who beat them back with a sweeping 
fire. The enterprising Gurkhas, however, had shown 
the way in which the bluff could be captured, and 
the next day Major-General H. V. Fox, commanding 
the 29th Indian Infantry Brigade, devised plans for a 
128 



THE HEROIC STRUGGLE 

concerted attack. This was carried out in the evening 
of May 12th, when the Manchester Brigade made a 
feint of a storming attack on the right of the enemy's 
position. The guns of H.M.S. Dublin and H.M.S. 
Talbot opened fire seaward on the Turkish trenches, 
while the guns and howitzers of one of the British 
divisions kept up a heavy shell fire from the land. 
Evening deepened into night, and the great bluff flamed 
with bursting shells that kept the Turks below their 
parapets. Then again in the darkness a double com- 
pany of Gurkhas crept along the shore, and, scaling 
the cliff, carried the position with a rush. They were 
followed by their machine-gun section, and another 
double company of their battalion, and when dawn 
broke the conquered position had been connected with 
our main line, advancing our left flank by nearly five 
hundred yards. 

GERMAN SUBMARINES INTERVENE — MEETING THE 
NEW MENACE 

Nothing of much importance was done for another 
fortnight. During this time the hardest work fell on 
the sappers, who tried to work up within rushing dis- 
tance of the enemy's second line by means of winding 
saps from which the troops could debouch. On May 
25th the Royal Naval Division and the 42d Division 
were able to entrench a hundred yards nearer the 
Turks, and four days afterwards the entire British line 
Avas helped onward by means of engineers' work. 
At the same time the French force also progressed and 
captured a machine-gun redoubt on the ridge going 
down to the Kereves Ravine. But all this slow 

9 129 



THE HEROIC STRUGGLE 

movement of approach against the hostile mountain 
fortress was suddenly complicated by a series of 
terrifying naval disasters. Some German submarines 
worked down to the Dardanelles in the third week in 
May, and all our naval dispositions and transport work 
were abruptly checked. 

We had already lost the Goliath, a useful old battle- 
ship, by a destroyer attack delivered by a very enter- 
prising German naval officer. This disaster only 
entailed greater watchfulness on the part of our scouts; 
but the torpedoing of H.M.S. Triumph on May 26th, 
and the torpedoing of H.M.S. Majestic on May 27th, 
were blows so serious that even some of the British 
thought that the Dardanelles campaign was sud- 
denly about to end in collapse. The outlook was 
indeed very serious. The large steamers which had 
been supplying the troops with food and ammunition 
could no longer be safely used, and it seemed at first 
as if the Germans and Austrians had only to send half 
a dozen more large underwater craft to the Dardanelles 
in order to maroon the troops that had landed on the 
Gallipoli Peninsula. It was a situation to test to the 
uttermost the ability of the British sailor; but by fine 
ingenuity and inventiveness he saved the army which 
he had put ashore with such remarkable skill. All the 
transports were sent into Mudros Bay, where there was 
only a narrow channel to guard. Men, stores, guns, 
and horses were henceforth conveyed across forty miles 
of water from Mudros to the Peninsula in mine- 
sweepers and other smaU, shallow vessels, which did 
not lie deep enough in the water for a torpedo to strike 
them at the ordinary depth. Then the large warships, 
130 



THE HEROIC STRUGGLE 

whose guns were very useful and sometimes of vital 
value in the military operations, were sheltered near 
the shore by means of submarine defenses, while the 
destroyers and patrol boats tracked the hostile under- 
water craft and assailed them in various ways. 

hunter-weston's ruse 

Almost every night the Turks assailed the Allied 
line, hoping, no doubt, to find that the attacking 
troops were weakening under the submarine menace. 
But the Allies' positions remained intact, and Sir Ian 
Hamilton, on June 3d, made his first deliberate assault 
on the Achi Baba fortifications. For his line of battle 
he deployed the 29th Division on his left, the42d (East 
Lancashire) Division in his center, with the Naval 
Division linking on with the French Army Corps. 
General Hunter- Weston, directing the British troops on 
a front of four thousand yards, had about 17,000 men 
on the firing-line, with 7,000 men in reserve. The 
action began on the morning of June 4th with a pre- 
liminary bombardment which lasted for more than 
three hours, after which the allied troops moved to 
attack, and then scurried back to their trenches. This 
was a little stratagem on the part of General Hunter- 
Weston to draw the fire of the enemy's artillery and 
machine-guns. The device was successful, and amid 
a heavy fire from the enemy's batteries and trenches, 
the Allies renewed their bombardment with increasing 
intensity, being able to mark more exactly the hostile 
targets. Precisely at noon the Allies lengthened 
their fire, and the entire British line charged with 
fixed bayonets. Both the French divisions stormed 

131 



THE HEROIC STRUGGLE 

forward at the same time, so that the glittering line 
of bayonets sparkled right across the Peninsula from 
the open sea to the closed Strait. 

NAVAL division's BRILLIANT WORK 

The Lancashire Territorials and the new recruits of 
the Anson, Howe, and Hood Battalions of the Naval 
Division did extremely well. They captured the first 
Turkish line in front of them in from five to fifteen 
minutes, and then burst through the second Turkish 
line in another fierce, swift spurt. In less than half an 
hour from the time when they leaped from the trenches, 
the men of the East Lancashire Division and the Naval 
Division had penetrated a third of a mile in the enemy's 
front, and were consolidating the conquered ground in a 
cool, workmanlike way. The 29th Division was less 
fortunate, as its left wing w^asheld up by a wire entangle- 
ment, so placed as to have escaped damage from our 
shells. It was an Indian brigade that was checked in 
this manner, and though a company of the 6th Gurkhas, 
the heroes of Gurkha Bluff, battered their way into the 
Turkish works, they had to be withdrawn with the 
rest of the brigade in order to avoid being cut off. 

Turks' deadly counter-attack 

While a fresh attack was being organized the French 
corps on the right got also into difficulties. The 
1st French Division carried the opposing enemy 
trench, while the 2d Division stormed in a magnificent 
charge the strong Turkish redoubt on the Kereves 
Ridge, knowTi as the Haricot. But the French left 
wing, acting on the right flank of the Royal Naval 
132 



THE HEROIC STRUGGLE 

Division, was unable to gain any ground, and this led 
to a disaster. In the afternoon the Turks, pouring 
out through the series of communication trenches, 
delivered a massed counter-attack on the Haricot 
Redoubt, while their guns prepared the way for them 
with a storm of shrapnel and high-explosive shells. 
The French lost the redoubt and fell back, and in so 
doing completely uncovered the right flank of the 
Naval Division. The men of the 2d Naval Brigade 
were enfiladed and forced to retire with heavy losses 
from the postion they had captured, and the CoUing- 
wood Battalion, which had gone forward in support, 
was almost completely destroyed. 

It looked as though the Turks were about to roll up 
the whole allied line, for when the Naval Brigade was 
compelled to retreat across the open, sloping fields 
under a terrible fire, the exposed flank of the Man- 
chester Brigade was in turn caught by Turkish and 
German machine-guns, and swept by volleys of rifle 
fire, and then hammered by hostile bombing-parties. 
But the Manchester men — ^nearly all of them Terri- 
torials — fought with bulldog courage to hold what they 
had won. There were places in which one Lancashire 
man resisted every force that the enemy could bring 
to bear upon him. Company-Sergeant-Major Hay, 
having captured single-handed a redoubt near Krithia, 
held it for ten hours with four men until he was 
relieved. Company-Sergeant-Major Alister killed eight 
Turks and cleared a trench. But probably the best 
fighter of aU was Private Richardson, who fought on 
alone in a trench south of lO-ithia for nearly twenty- 
four hourS; and beat back every hostile assault. 

133 



THE HEROIC STRUGGLE 

Manchester's great exploit 

The fighting around Krithia in the afternoon of 
June 4, 1915, was a matter upon which every Terri- 
torial can look back with deep pride. The Manchester 
Brigade equaled the finest exploits of the old Regular 
Army. They answered the attack on their flank by 
throwing back their right wing; and such was their 
desperate courage that Sir Ian Hamilton could not 
bear to let them retire. Their position was one of 
extreme peril, for they were surrounded on two sides, 
and the Turks were making a sustained and furious 
effort to drive across the salient and cut off the brigade. 
So the British Commander-in-Chief formed up the 
Naval Division, and asked General Gouraud to 
co-operate in making an attack that should advance 
the right of the line, and connect and protect the flank 
of the Manchester men. But the French corps itself 
was still in great difficulties. Twice the attack was 
postponed at the request of General Gouraud, and at 
haff-past sLx in the evening he reported that the pressure 
of the Turkish masses against him was so heavy that 
he could not advance. 

Nothing remained but to withdraw the Manchester 
men from the second Turkish line which they were 
holding to the first Turkish line. The troops were 
very angry, and some of them desired to stay on and 
die rather than give up any of the ground they had 
won. But after much persuasion all the East Lan- 
cashire Division was extricated from the second line 
of captured trenches, and placed back in the Turkish 
first line, which they had won in five minutes at the 
beginning of their attack. The net result of the day's 
134 



THE HEROIC STRUGGLE 

operations was an advance on a depth of two hundred 
to four hundred yards, along a front of nearly three 
miles. It was less than had been hoped for, but it 
was still a very considerable gain. Not only was there 
a substantial and very useful extension of ground, but 
the Turks were so severely punished that, though 
flushed with the victory of regaining their second Hne, 
they had not enough spirit left to attempt a counter- 
attack to recover their firing-trenches and forward 
machine-gun redoubts. Four hundred prisoners were 
taken, including five German officers, who were the 
remnant of a machine-gun party from the Goeben. 
Most of the captures v/ere made by the Lancashire 
Territorials, whose capable divisional commander was 
Major-General W. Douglas. 



135 



CHAPTER XII 

THE VALIANT DEFENSE OF SERBIA 
AND MONTENEGRO 

BRIGHT SPOTS IN SERBIA's DARK SKY VASSITCH 

ROBBED OF SUCCESS SARRAIL ASSAULTS MOUNT 

ARKJINGEL BULGARIANS TAKE THE OFFENSIVE — 

SARRAIL's lack of men BATTLE OF KATSHANIK 

PASS SERBIAN ROUT AT PRISREND HORRORS OF 

THE FLIGHT SARRAIL's FIGHTING RETREAT TENTH 

division's memorable stand FATE DECIDES 

AGAINST MONTENEGRO. 

THE DISASTROUS week which saw the faU of Nish 
on November 5, 1915, and the enemy in occupation 
of the greater part of Serbia, did not, however, close 
without witnessing a splendid vindication of the fighting 
qualities of the Serbians. If by this time the general 
situation of the little kingdom was becoming gloomy, 
the dark sky was not entirely destitute of gleams of 
light. The soldiers of Bojovitch and of Vassitch respec- 
tively had repelled all assaults of the Bulgarians on 
the Katshanik Pass, northwest of Uskub, and the Ba- 
buna Pass, southwest of Veles, two places of extreme 
strategic importance, as subsequent events clearl}" 
showed. The heroic Vassitch did far better than 
merely hold the Babuna Pass against repeated attacks, 
for he was victorious there in a battle which, had circum- 
stances been more propitious, might have favorably 
136 




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ri ^r, 








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VALIANT DEFENSE OF SERBIA 

influenced the whole course of the later phases of the 
struggle for his country's existence. 

During that first week of November, 1915, Vassitch, 
in and around the Babuna Pass, had only 5,000 men 
to pit against over 20,000 Bulgarians, who besides 
had much heavier artillery. Day after day, night after 
night, his small force of Serbians, often without food, 
always under fire, but cheered by their commander, 
and singing their plaintive national airs, fought daunt- 
lessly on, repulsing with serious loss to the invader all 
his most stubborn and persistent efforts to force the 
pass. They did more. From November 4th to No- 
vember 6th an incessant and sanguinary hand-to-hand 
fight, in which the combatants made free use of their 
knives, raged in the deep and narrow gorges of the 
defile, ending in the complete rout of the Bulgarians, 
who were driven through Izvor pell-mell into Veles. 

And on the other side of the hills the French, under 
General Sarrail, were only a few miles away — almost 
in touch. It looked as if the Allies might effect a 
junction, and telegrams were despatched from Greece 
which actually asserted that not only French but also 
British troops had united with the Serbians. The 
truth, unfortunately, was altogether otherwise. 

A thoroughly capable soldier, who had already 
proved his merit in France, General Sarrail did wonders 
considering the shortness of the time at his disposal 
and the inferiority of the facilities at his command, but 
the numbers of his men were utterly insufficient for 
their task, and he could not achieve the impossible. 
He made a great, an even desperate, attempt to j®in 
up with Vassitch, and so nearly accomplished it that 

137 



VALIANT DEFENSE OF SERBIA 

nothing but the absence of reinforcements at a critical 
moment robbed him of success. In this effort his troops 
were entirely French, the British, lying around LakeDoi- 
ran, being well to the south and east on his right flank. 
As soon as possible after his arrival at Salonika, he 
railed aU his available forces up the Valley of the 
Vardar, towards Veles. He had only a single-tracked 
and indifferent railway for the transportation of both 
men and supphes, yet he pressed on with surprising 
speed. The line followed the snaky twistings of the 
river, and parts of it, built on shelves cut out of the 
soUd rock, passed through deep gorges, the longest of 
which, known as the Demir Kapu Ravine, extended 
for ten miles. As possession of this defile by the enemy 
would have been a fatal bar to his advance, his first 
business was to get it into his own hands, and after 
some fighting at Strumnitza station, a few miles to 
the south, he secured it without further opposition. 
Then he pushed on north of it to Krivolak, about 110 
miles from Salonika. He reached Krivolak on October 
19th, but at first he had only a handful of troops, and 
could do little tiU more had come up. 

VASSITCH ROBBED OF SUCCESS 

By a magnificent thrust Vassitch recaptured Veles 
from the Bulgarians on October 22d, and managed 
to hold it for a week. This town lay along the railway 
some thirty-five miles northwest of Krivolak, but the 
French were not sufficiently strong to push their way 
up the line to it, and they had to fight hard, as it was, 
to maintain themselves. It was not till after they had 
gained possession of a steep and forbidding height, 
138 



VALIANT DEFENSE OF SERBIA 

called Kara Hodjali, three miles north of Krivolak 
on the road to Ishtip, that they established their 
position, and, defeating furious assaults of the enemy 
on October 30th and November 4th and 5th, made an 
effective bridge-head on the east side of the Vardar. 
In the meantime Vassitch, far outnumbered and out- 
gunned, had been compelled to evacuate Veles again 
and withdraw to the Babuna Pass. 

SARRAIL ASSAULTS MOUNT ARKANGEL 

Krivolak was twenty-five miles almost due east of 
the pass, and Sarrail's problem now was to bridge the 
distance which intervened between himself and Vas- 
sitch. The first part of the way was easy, fifteen 
miles across an undulating plain to the Tserna, a 
tributary of the Vardar; but the remaining ten miles, 
on the west side of the former river, were over very 
difficult country, consisting of rugged hills and moun- 
tains, interspersed with water-courses, the whole of this 
terrain, on which the Bulgarians had erected fortifi- 
cations, lending itself readily to a powerful defense. 

Having secured Kara Hodjali, which the French 
soldiers renamed Kara Rosalie, after the pet word of 
their bayonets, Sarrail, for whom reinforcements had 
all the while been arriving at Krivolak, marched south- 
west across the plain through Negotin and Kavarda 
to the Tserna, an unfordable stream of considerable 
width, with but one bridge over it, and that of wood 
at a place called Vozartzi. On November 5th the 
French moved over the bridge, and occupied the 
adjacent crests of the precipitous slopes which, often 
rising above 1,000 feet in height, line for miles that 

139 



VALIANT DEFENSE OF SERBIA 

side of the river. Here they were so near the Babuna 
Pass that they could hear the thundrous rumble of 
the artillery taking part in the fierce battle in which 
Vassitch was victorious. Advancing northwards along 
the west bank of the Tserna, Sarrail next day began 
an assault of Mount Arkangel, ten miles down stream 
from Vozartzi, and the center of the Bulgarian position, 
which had to be stormed if a junction was to be made 
with the Serbians. 

Mount Arkangel, however, was an extremely hard 
nut to crack. The Bulgarians had strongly fortified 
it, were numerically much superior to the French, and, 
moreover, were constantly being reinforced by Teodo- 
roff from his main army. In war, ^'L'audace!" typified 
the spirit of the French, and on this occasion, with their 
precarious communications and relatively small num- 
bers, it needed all their boldness and courage to make 
the attempt. After skirmishes with outposts at the 
base of the mountain, they drove the Bulgarians out 
of the villages of Sirkovo and Krushevitza, and on 
November the 10th they carried, by an encircling move- 
ment, with great dash, the village of Sirkovo, situated 
some distance up the side of the eminence. But they 
did not get far above this point. By the close of the 
second week of November the Bulgarians concentrated 
upwards of 60,000 men, with a corresponding strength 
in guns, on ]\Iount Arkangel and along the west bank 
of the Tserna, and on the 12th they took the offensive. 

BULGARIANS TAKE THE OFFENSIVE 

Their obviously best course was to cut the French 
off from the Vozartzi bridge, the latter's sole line of 
140 



VALIANT DEFENSE OF SERBIA 

supply and retreat, and then hem them in against the 
impassable river in the rear. For three days, in fighting 
of the most violent description, they made the most 
determined efforts to carry out this purpose, but the 
French, combining higher skill with equal determina- 
tion, held their ground, and in a grim conflict, which 
took place on Mount Arkangel itself, inflicted a severe 
defeat on the enemy, who was forced to retire in great 
disorder, leaving 3,500 dead on the field. In this 
battle the Bulgarians charged to within twenty yards 
of the French trenches, but, faltering under a withering 
fire and then counter-charged by the French with the 
bayonet, broke, turned, and ran. Mr. G. Ward Price, 
the authorized representative of the London Press with 
the allies in the Balkins, reported that if only there 
had been enough French troops to throw into the 
struggle at the moment, the retreat of the Bulgars 
would have been made a rout. 

sarrail's lack of men 

Vassitch held out in the Babuna Pass, ten miles away 
all the next day, November 15th, but the French 
could not get across the hiUs, and as he was compelled 
to retire, in order to escape envelopment, on Prilep 
on November 16th, the opportunity passed. The 
French, still hoping to assist the Serbians in some way, 
retained their positions. It was November 20th, 
nearly a week after the battle of Mount Arkangel, 
before the Bulgarians, freshly strengthened, renewed 
the attack, and they were again heavily checked, but 
Sarrail was unable to advance, the plain fact being 
that he neither had nor could get men in adequate force. 

141 



VALIANT DEFENSE OF SERBIA^ 

And, meanwhile, in other parts of the country the 
progress of events, moving from disaster to disaster 
for the brave but unfortunate Serbians, had rendered 
it evident that the enemy's overrunning of the rest of 
Serbia was a question of but a very short time, on 
which the venture of the Allies would exercise little 
or no influence. 

BATTLE OF KATSHANIK PASS 

About November 10th Bojovitch's slender army of 
5,000 men was reinforced by three regiments, including 
one from the Shumadia and one from the Morava 
Divisions, which were sent by the railway — the only 
bit remaining to Serbia — from Pristina to Ferizovitch, 
some ten miles from the Katshanik Pass. The weather 
was intensely cold, and the roads were indescribably 
bad. The Serbians, though exhausted by much march- 
ing, and weak from want of food, pressed on to the pass, 
and Bojovitch began the attack without a moment's 
delay. According to one account he had a hundred 
guns, mostly of the French 75 and 155 type (3-in. and 
6-in.), which rained thousands of shrapnel and high- 
explosive shells on the trenches of the Bulgarians, who, 
under this terrible fire, retreated south for four miles. 
Then the Serbian infantry drove on, falling wave after 
wave on the reeling Bulgarian ranks, which, however, 
ralHed as their supports came up. One Serbian 
regiment charged desperately seven times, each time 
capturing and then losing six Bulgarian guns. In 
several parts of the field there was a savage hand-to- 
hand mel^e, in which the combatants, throwing down 
their rifles, fought with daggers, knives, fists, and even 
142 



VALIANT DEFENSE OF SERBIA 

teeth, the wildest, fiercest scenes in the envenomed fight- 
ing on the Timok being far outdone. For some time the 
Serbians on the whole made progress, the enemy's 
center being pierced by a prodigious effort of the 
Shumadia and Morava troops, and it seemed as if 
Serbian valor would prevail. But here, once more, 
the Serbians had no reserves to ensure success. The 
Bulgarians were all the time being strengthened by 
large numbers of fresh men railed up from Uskub, and 
in the end this superiority was the deciding factor. 
On the 15th the battle was lost, and the Serbians were 
forced out of the pass, retiring by the passes of the 
Jatzovitza Hills on Prisrend. 

SERBIAN ROUT AT PRISREND 

From Mitrovitza a part of the Serbian Army, accom- 
panied by multitudes of civilian fugitives, retreated to 
Ipek in Montenegro, and some proportion of them 
eventually arrived at Scutari, by way of Podgoritza, 
after suffering the cruelest hardships and privations — 
the rest perished miserably from cold and starvation. 
Retiring from the same town, another part of the force 
which had opposed Kovess stood and fought him again 
at Vutshitrin, but was beaten and pursued across the 
Sitnitza. But the main line of retreat of the Serbians 
was along the high road from Pristina to Prisrend, 
and the Bulgarians pressed on quickly behind in 
this direction, took the heights west of Ferizovitch, 
and also advanced northerly towards Ipek, against 
which town Kovess had sent a detachment. The 
retreat to Prisrend was covered by the Shumadia 
Division. On November 27th upwards of 80,000 

U3 



VALIANT DEFENSE OF SERBIA' 

Serbians stood at bay in front of this town, but 
next day, after a most sanguinary conflict, and 
having fired their last shell, they spiked their guns, 
and fled across the frontier into Albania, making along 
the White Drin for Kula Liuma, sometimes called 
Lum Kulus, while several thousand prisoners fell into 
the hands of the enemy. 

HORRORS OF THE FLIGHT 

Marked by horrors unspeakable, the retreat of the 
Serbian Army will remain one of the most terrible in 
history. Day by day thousands of men, ill-clad, 
ill-shod, or with bare and bleeding feet, and, crazed 
with famine, eating raw horse-flesh with avidity, 
stumbled painfully and wretchedly along the two 
available roads, and these no better than mule-tracks, 
from Kula Liuma, one going west to Scutari, and the 
other south through Dibra to Elbasan. Saddest of all, 
with these wearied and war-worn soldiers there traveled 
long, mournful processions of the aged of both sexes, 
of the women and children, of Serbia, exhausted and 
starving, but preferring to face anything than to fall 
into the hands of the Austro-German and Bulgarian 
conquerors. Each via dolorosa was strewn thickly 
with bodies of these unfortunate people. It was 
estimated that out of half a million civilians, who sought 
refuge in flight into the Albanian mountains, more than 
200,000 died. 

sarrail's flying retreat 

The French bore the brunt of the struggle on the 
Tserna — perhaps because they were more numerous 
144 



VALIANT DEFENSE OF SERBIA 

than the British, who were not actively engaged in force 
until the first week of December. Their trenches lay 
north and west of Lake Doiran, among bleak hills 
covered with snow, spreading out fanwise in the direc- 
tion of Strumnitza, and they had taken them over from 
the French when the latter had gone up the Vardar to 
Krivolak. One of the difficulties of Sarrail's retreat 
was that while it was going on he was unable, owing 
to the nature of the country, to maintain close com- 
munication with the British prior to the 10th. 

On the east side of the Vardar Teodoroff had massed 
four divisions — or roughly 100,000 men — and he made 
his first great assault on the British in the grey of early 
morning, and under cover of a fog, which permitted 
him to get close up to the British trenches, without 
being clearly perceived, on December 6th. The 
British force opposed to this Bulgarian army — for it 
was nothing less — consisted of the 10th Division, 
which had come from Suvla Bay, and could hardly 
have been in anything like full strength, and supports 
drawn from the Salonika base. The enemy first of all 
poured a rain of high-explosive shells on the British 
trenches, which were held mainly by the Inniskillings, 
the Connaughts, the Munsters, and the Dublin Fusi- 
liers — the pick of Ireland — and the Hampshires. After 
very heavy fighting, often hand-to-hand, with the 
advantage now on the one side and now on the other, 
the overwhelming strength of the Bulgarians told, and 
the British were driven out of their first line. The 
battle had raged all day, with hardly a pause, and it 
was renewed next morning with equal or even fiercer 
intensity. 

10 145 



VALIANT DEFENSE OF SERBIA 

TENTH division's MEMORABLE STAND 

As on the 6th, the conflict commanced with a tremen- 
dous bombardment by the Bulgarians of the British 
lines, and then the enemy came on, hurrahing and 
cheering, and threw himself in successive waves on the 
10th Division, which, resisting stoutly, gave ground 
slowly, its rate of retirement being about two miles a 
day, which was wonderfully little considering the 
enormous pressure exerted by Teodoroff's four divi- 
sions. More than once the British looked as though 
they would be annihilated, but a free use of the 
bayonet, added to Irish and English pluck, succeeded 
in extricating them from the most dangerous sit- 
uations. 

Without much further fighting, the Franco-British 
troops on December 12th gained the other side of the 
frontier, having torn up the railway behind them, and 
fired Gevgheli and other points on the Macedonian 
side, so as to delay the Bulgarian advance. By a 
fortunate coincidence Greece had on the previous day 
agreed to accept the proposals of the Allies by which 
their forces were to have free and unimpeded liberty 
of action. Considering the difficulty of the operations 
in face of the immense strength of the enemy, the 
whole retirement, which reflected the greatest credit 
on General Sarrail, had been carried out most success- 
fully. Although his men had at their disposal only one 
line of railway and no roads, their retreat was executed 
in such an orderly manner that they were able to save 
and withdraw all their stores, while the total of their 
casualties did not exceed 3,500, a very moderate figure 
in the circumstances, 
146 



VALIANT DEFENSE OF SERBIA 

FATE DECIDES AGAINST MONTENEGRO 

When Serbia was overrun, Mackensen redistributed 
his forces, various German and Austrian divisions 
being sent north to watch the Russians who, at that 
juncture, were rumored to be about to make a diver- 
sion in the Balkans, either through Rumania or by a 
descent on the Bulgar shore of the Black Sea. German 
troops were transferred to Bulgaria, and even to 
Turkey, both of which countries were now openly "run" 
from Berlin. But troops were not withdrawn from the 
Montenegrin front; on the contrary, they were greatly 
increased. Just as Austria hated Serbia with a deadly 
hatred, so she hated this stiU smaller Slav State which, 
with a population of less than half a million, had been 
long independent of her as of Turkey. Austria deter- 
mined to destroy it. The undertaking was difficult, 
because of the almost inaccessibly mountainous charac- 
ter of the country and the bravery of its inhabitants, 
who were inured to war and every kind of hardship, 
like the Serbians; but it was not impossible, if men and 
guns were provided in adequate strength. What 
could be done in Serbia could be done in Montenegro. 

Although the Austrians advanced during December 
some distance on the east side, or Sanjak front, captur- 
ing Plevlie, Ipek and Bielopolie, their great offensive 
did not start till January, 1916. In the interval the 
Montenegrins had at least one considerable victory, 
at Lepenatz, but in general they were driven steadily 
back. In the last days of the year Mount Lovtchen 
was heavily shelled, and then attacked in some force, 
but the Montenegrins were successful in repelling this 
assault on their stronghold. It was not till January 

147 



VALIANT DEFENSE OF SERBIA 

6th that Kovess -began decisive operations by a series 
of concerted violent attacks on the Montenegrin east 
front, on the Tara, the Lim and the Ibar, while at the 
same time warships in the Gulf of Cattaro opened a 
terrible fire on Mount Lovtchen. 

Desperate fighting continued for four days. Berane, 
on the Lim, was captured by the Austrians on the 10th; 
and, far more important, Lovtchen succumbed on the 
same day to infantry assaults prepared by the fire from 
the warships. Some surprise was expressed among the 
other Allies that the fortress should have fallen in such 
a short time, but the feeling changed when it became 
known that the place was defended by less than 6,000 
men — starving, with insufficient clothing^ and lament- 
ably short of guns and munitions. With Lovtchen 
gone, Cetinje could not be held by the Montenegrins, 
and it was occupied by the Austrians on the 13th. 
Four days later the announcement was made in the 
Hungarian Parliament that Montenegro had '^ surren- 
dered unconditionally." 



148 



CHAPTER XIII 
THE TERRIBLE MESOPOTAMIAN CAMPAIGN 

WHY NEITHER BRITON NOR TURK VENTURED FAR 
INTO BABYLONIA— INSECTS VS. MAN— BATTLE OF 
NORFOLK HILL— FIGHTING THE HEAT— AN AWFUL 
MARCH— THE ADVANCE ON BAGDAD— BATTLE OF 

NASIRIYEH MAGNIFICENT WEST KENTS— ROUT OF 

THE TURKS— NUREDIN PASHA OUT-MANEUVERED— 
RETIREMENT ON KUT-EL-AMARA. 

THERE IS nothing of the romantic atmosphere 
of the "Arabian Nights' Entertainments" remaining 
in the region between Bagdad and the Persian Gulf. 
In ancient times, it is said, a cock could hop from house 
to house from Basra, the city of Sindbad, past Babylon 
and Seleucia, to the capital of Haroun Al-Raschid. 
But since the Mongol, the Turk, and the nomads of 
Arabia swept over the most fertile country on earth, 
the tract between the Tigris and the Euphrates has 
lapsed into desert sand and riverside jungles of cane- 
brakes, where the Mesopotamian Hon ranges. Instead 
of being a land of vines, orange groves, and rose 
gardens. Babylonia has become one of the most desolate 
wastes in Asia, and the reason why neither the Turk 
at Mosul nor the Briton at Koweit succeeded ^ m 
occupying the wilderness was apparent in the spring 
of 1915. In April the commander of the Indian 
Expeditionary Force, Sir Arthur Barrett, fell so 
seriously ill that Sir John Eccles Nixon had to take 

149 



THE MESOPOTAMIAN CAMPAIGN 



over his command. The following month many men 
of the British regiments began to feel unwell, and when 
the full heat of the summer smote the Indo-British 
force the sufferings of the white men were extreme. 
The heat was not much worse than that of the 
Punjab, yet the Indian troops suffered almost as much 
as the British troops. This was due to the fact that 
the steaming marshlands of the great rivers not only 
gave a trying, humid quality to the burning tropical 
sunlight, but also the vast stretches of stagnant water, 
full of rotting refuse, formed the breeding places of 
an absolutely incomparable swarm of mosquitoes, 
biting flies, and vermin. These biting and blood- 
sucking insects were the main defenders of the legend- 
ary site of Eden, of the river-lands of Ur, where 
Abraham pastured his cattle, and the desolate yellow 
mounds representing all that remained of the hangmg 
gardens by the Euphrates, where Alexander the Great 
died. Alexander had been able to conquer all 
emperors, kings, and chieftains between the Mediter- 
ranean and the Indian Ocean, but at the height of his 
power and glory he had been stung by a gnat, and 
infected with a deadly fever. 

INSECTS VS. MAN 

Many of the troops at last went through the cam- 
paign in a state of absolute nudity, protected by 
mosquito-nets, with mats of woven reeds over their 
heads, as a slight shade against the flame-like sunshine. 
But they could not get away from the flies; a man 
could not eat his food without eating flies. A piece 
of white bread became black before it reached one's 
150 



THE MESOPOTAMIAN CAMPAIGN 

mouth, and the inevitable result was some kind of 
dysentery. And such was the effect of the heat that 
a body of vigorous troops in the prime of life, march- 
ing at the top of their powers, seldom did more than 
eight miles a day. By this time they lost so much 
of the fluid of their blood that, though they emptied 
their water-flasks, they were tortured by thirst, and 
suffered like men in the last stages of kidney disease. 
Sir John Nixon began his part of the campaign by 
turning his soldiers into sailors. For some weeks in 
the spring the whole brigade stationed at Kurna was 
engaged in learning the art of navigation in bellums. 
This type of boat has a length of about thirty-five feet 
and a beam of two and a half feet; it is propelled in 
shallow water by poles, and in deep water by paddles. 
Two men were required to work it, and as it was likely 
they would both be shot down when the action opened, 
all the men in the flat-bottomed craft had to learn 
how to punt and paddle, so as to be able to look after 
themselves if their boatmen fell. It was also at this 
time that a considerable part of our field artillery was 
put on the water, and, by great feats of carpentry and 
smith work, mounted on rafts, sailing-boats, tugs, 
and launches. Machine-guns were also mounted in 
large numbers, and at dawn on May 31st the extraor- 
dinary new Indo-British navy moved out to attack 

BATTLE OF NORFOLK HILL 

In front of hundreds of river-boats were the three 
sloops Cho, Odin, and Espiegel, each with six four- 
inch guns, and the Royal Indian Marine steamer 
Lawrence, with rafts and boats containing field- 

151 



THE MESOPOTAMIAN CAMPAIGN 

guns. This remarkable squadron had to steam through 
something that was neither land nor water, but a 
tract of mud thinning into a liquid form, while retain- 
ing the appearance of land by reason of the reeds 
growing out of it. The progress of the boats was much 
impeded by the reeds, and the Turks, A'^ith their 
Kurdish levies and German officers, entrenched on the 
low hills to the north, had a magnificent target. But 
their 6-in. field-guns used only the old segment shells, 
sold by the English government to the Ottoman 
Empire soon after the South African War. These 
shells made a noise, but did very little damage. What 
was more important, the Turks had no machine-guns, 
and their musketry fire was not good. After the steamer 
squadron had bombarded the enemy trenches, the 
newly-made sailor-soldiers of the bellum brigade — ■ 
2d Norfolks, 110th Mahratta Light Infantry, and 
120th Rajputana Infantry — beached their boats among 
the reeds, then squelched through the marsh and 
charged with the bayonet up the high, dry ground. 
The entrenched Turks, on the hill now known as Nor- 
folk HiU, put up a good fight, but they were rushed 
and shattered, and the enemy troops in the other six 
positions fled in disorder up the Tigris to Amara. 

FIGHTING THE HEAT 

The garrison work, though unexciting, was almost a 
relief after a skirmish in the desert. In the desert 
at times the temperature was up to 130 degrees in the 
small tents, and on very sultry days the sandstorms 
came. A dense khaki-colored cloud rose on the 
horizon, and then rolled towards the encampment. 
152 



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THE MESOPOTAMIAN CAMPAIGN 

The men rushed about strengthening their tent-pegs 
and ropes, and collecting all the loose kit; but often 
no preparation was adequate to meet the storm. The 
tents were blown down like packs of cards, and all had 
to hide their heads under tent-flaps, bedding, or boxes, 
as it was impossible to face the blasts of cutting sand. 
In violent tempests the sand made a black darkness 
which lasted for hours. When the storm passed, and 
the troops emerged, shaking themselves like dogs 
coming out of water, their eyes were bloodshot, their 
mouths and nostrils coated thick and black with sand 
and mud, and all their bodies were a mass of sand. 
It was in these circumstances that the work of 
chasing down hostile Arab tribes and burning their 
camps had to be carried out. The actual conflicts with 
mounted bands of Bedouin guerrillas were not much of 
a trial. As the Bedouins usually had no guns, they 
scattered among the dunes when our men offered battle, 
and our reconnoitring aeroplanes were hard put to it 
to trace the lines along which they were going to again 
concentrate. The Indian cavalry, with a section of 
horse artillery concealed behind them, managed at 
first by feigning a flight and leading the unsuspecting 
Bedouins towards the British guns, to ambush some of 
the more daring Bedouin parties. But the Bedouin, 
being a born guerrilla fighter, mounted on a fine desert 
horse, soon learned all the tricks of the British cavalry, 
and had to be hunted down by converging columns of 
infantry. Infantry, however, had been hunting down 
the Bedouin for some ten thousand years; and when 
the Indo-British troops took up the work which Turk, 
Mongol, Persian, Assyrian, Babylonian and Sumerian 

153 



THE MESOPOTAMIAN CAMPAIGN 

had been unable to accomplish, the son of the desert 
resorted to his ancient tacties. 

He retired deep into the sandy waste, where he could 
water by springs known only to himself. There he 
tried to outfight his foes by his last and most terrible 
weapon of defense — thirst. The British pursuers had 
some narrow escapes from the most awful of deaths. 
On one occasion a strong column of their troops was 
set the apparently easy task of rounding up some 
Bedouins whom the British airmen had discovered 
camping only ten miles away. The men marched all 
night through the hot desert, charged the Arabs early 
in the morning, burned their tents, and hunted them 
over the sand-ridges for miles, and then returned to 
the captured camp for food and water. By this time 
the sun was terribly fierce, and the men, having 
emptied their water-bottles while marching in the hot 
night, v/ere exhausted. And no water had been brought 
for them. It had apparently been thought that, as 
the river was only ten miles away the column was in 
no danger of dying from thirst. 

AN AWFUL MABCH 

At seven o'clock in the morning the troops began 
their march back to the river. But after covering 
only two miles the situation became desperate. The 
men began to stagger out and drop with exhaustion, 
and every hundred yards they went things looked 
blacker and blacker. At the end of four miles, when 
the sun was high and all the air was aflame, the column 
had to stop. The men — mostly Indians, and accus- 
tomed to tropical heat — could not get any farther. 
154 



THE MESOPOTAMIAN CAMPAIGN 

Some of the British officers, who had been very careful 
with their water-bottles, gave their last drop to Indian 
officers and other bad cases. Then the general ordered 
tents to be pitched, and sent his Staff and cavalry 
to bring water from the river. Meanwhile, the column 
was in an awful condition, the agony of many of the 
men being dreadful to witness. One British infantry 
officer, feeling he was about to die, thought he would 
make a struggle for it. He strung water-bottles round 
his neck and around the camp mules, mounted one of 
the chargers, and made for the river. He could not 
afterwards tell how he reached it. He was half uncon- 
scious. But the animals found the water, and the 
officer rolled in it on his charger, drank up something 
that was more mud than water, and filled the bottles. 
With his refreshed pack of mules he regained the 
camp before the cavalry arrived, and saved many 
lives. 

THE ADVANCE ON BAGDAD 

About the beginning of July, 1915, the Mesopotamian 
campaign against the Turkish forces guarding Bagdad 
was undertaken. 

At the Dardanelles the British had first thrown at 
the Ottoman Empire— which had six hundred thou- 
sand men under arms — a single army corps, shipped 
in disorder, and unprovided with the heavy howitzers 
needed in the siege battles of modern times. When 
this operation had failed, and the Ottoman Govern- 
ment was reported to be waiting only for equipment 
in order to arm a million men, the British Cabinet 
sent General Townshend to operate on the other 

155 



THE MESOPOTAMIAN CAMPAIGN 

side of the Ottoman Empire and capture Bagdad, in 
a zone where the Turks were believed to have large 
forces. 

THE BATTLE OF NASIRIYEH 

After fighting through the enemy's advanced position 
below Hamar Lake, the wonderfully-mixed British 
flotilla arrived, at the end of the third week in July, 
at a distance of about seven miles from Nasiriyeh. 
The division was then split up. Two brigades were 
landed on the right or westerly bank, while to the 
other brigade was assigned the task of working through 
the groves of date-palms on the left bank. As a 
reserve, a fourth brigade was brought down from 
Amara, and held ready for action in river-boats. 
Each of these boats had four guns, and pushing slowly 
up the river it covered with its fire the British troops 
on either bank, and silenced some of the enemy's guns 
that tried to shell the flotilla. The reserve brigade 
did not come into action, so complete and rapid was 
the success of the division. 

The battle began about half-past four on the morn- 
ing of July 24, 1915. For half an hour the brigades 
had been moving forward; but before the infantry 
charged, all the British howitzers, field and mountain 
guns bombarded the enemy's foremost trenches with 
high-explosive shells. For a full hour the batteries 
continued to smash up the enemy's entrenchments and 
gun positions; and then the 2d West Kents advanced 
through the date groves, while eight machine-guns, 
with the supporting battalions, covered the advance 
by rapid fire on the opposing trenches. Despite this 
156 



THE MESOPOTAMIAN CAMPAIGN 

covering fire, however, the West Kents were met by 
a terrible fusillade that swept their front lines. An 
officer in one of the regiments that was maintaining 
a covering musketry fire said the most magnificent 
sight he had ever seen was the West Kents going on 
under the enemy's terrific fusillade, and maneuvering 
as if they were on parade. As soon as they got up to 
the Turkish trenches, they wheeled round to the 
right, and, while their comrades stopped firing for 
fear of hitting them, they leapt into the trenches and 
were lost to view. 

As they disappeared they get to work with the bayo- 
net, and in a short time the spectators watching the 
game of life and death saw the Turks running as if the 
devil himself were after them. So the brigade opened 
fire again at the fugitives. Sergeant W. Wannell and 
Company-Sergeant-Major A. G. Elliott, both of the 
2d West Kents, were the first to reach the enemy's 
trenches. They each led several bayonet charges in 
the close fighting which followed the attack, clearing 
trench after trench with steel and bullet. Sergeant 
Wannell also showed himself a remarkable bomb- 
thrower, and Company-Sergeant-Major Elliott, after 
heading charge after charge, helped to rescue a wounded 
comrade under fire. When Lieutenant Hill was 
wounded, yet still fighting with his sword against a 
throng of enemies. Private Howe leaped to his help 
and, by shooting one Turk and bayoneting four others, 
saved his officer's life. Two others of the West Kents 
— Private E. T. Bye and Private W. Bridger — distin- 
guished themselves in tending the wounded and 
searching for them under the enemy's fusillade. 

157 



THE MESOPOTAMIAN CAMPAIGN 

Company-Sergeant-Major E. J. Newbrook was a fine 
fighter. Badly wounded during the first attack, he 
remained directing his party till the close of the day's 
operations. Many soldiers have done this sort of thing 
in France and Flanders; but the cUmate in Mesopo- 
tamia in the fourth week of July was a trying one for a 
severely wounded man to keep fighting in until evening 
fell. In the Ypres battles the 1st West Kents — the 
regiment that never lost a trench — won the highest 
honors in the Army; and at Nasiriyeh, in Babylonia, 
the men of the 2d Battafion showed themselves of the 
same splendid character. 

After the West Kents wheeled and jumped into the 
Turkish trenches, the rest of the brigade advanced to 
support the attack, carrying all the ammunition they 
could collect. The brigade wheeled in the direction 
taken by its leading battalion, and picking their way 
through mounds of dead Turks, the men emerged into 
an open space where the Kentish heroes were taking 
cover by a low bank, and firing at the enemy in 
the date groves all around them. By this time 
the West Kents were using their last cartridges; 
but a battalion of Sikhs gave them some ammuni- 
tion, and reinforced the firing-line by the low bank. 
Soon afterwards the order came to take two loopholed 
towers from which the enemy was maintaining a heavy 
fire. A double company of Sikhs and some twelve 
of the West Kents cleared the Turks out of the 
trenches on their right, and then shouting out ''Hurrah !" 
like boys at a picnic, they stabbed their way along 
a communication sap, and took both towers in fifteen 
minutes. 
158 



THE MESOPOTAMIAN CAMPAIGN 

ROUT OF THE TURKS 

The Turks lost many men, for they fought with 
matting over their trenches to keep the sun out, and 
the Kents and the Sikhs stuck them with the bayonet 
through the matting while they were firing up rather 
wildly, without being able to see clearly what was 
happening over their covering. After capturing the 
towers and a considerable number of prisoners, the 
Sikhs and the handful of white men had ten minutes' 
rest, which they spent in binding up their wounded 
and putting them in the shade of the towers. Then 
the small force fought the Turks out of another 
long line of trench, running down to the edge of a 
creek which formed the extreme left of the Turkish 
position. Here there was a village with another 
couple of towers, and these were also stormed after 
long, terrible bayonet work above the last mat-covered 
trench. By this time the division had won the battle. 
The Turks could be seen running away on the left, 
and the Sikhs and the West Kents were signaled to hold 
the ground they had won, and not to advance any 
farther. So, posting guards, they slept by the last 
two captured towers that night. 

General Townshend continued to perform miracles 
with a force that never consisted of more than four 
brigades. Towards the end of October the Turks 
were so strongly estabhshed in their new fortifications 
near Bagdad that they left only a single brigade in 
their advanced position near Azizie. This rear-guard 
had a large number of guns, by means of which it held 
the river against the British gunboats, and pestered 
the British camp with occasional shells. The British 

159 



THE MESOPOTAMIAiN CAMPAIGN 

force preserved a grim silence, with the object of 
luUing the Turk, and making him forget his danger. 
On one very dark night two British brigades made a 
long roundabout march in Kut-el-Amara fashion, with 
a view to getting on the enemy's rear and encircling 
him, while a third Indo-British brigade undertook a 
frontal attack at dawn. But the Turk showed him- 
self capable of learning by experience. On this occa- 
sion his outposts were flung far into the desert, appar- 
ently with a portable wireless instrument well out on 
their flank. Long before the wdde British turning 
movement threatened their main position, the Turks 
were in full retreat, taking with them all their guns 
and most of their stores. Their movement looked 
like a headlong flight, but it was really a well-executed 
retirement in face of superior forces, which had carried 
out so well-planned a maneuver that instant retreat 
was the only answer to it. 

The Indo-British division at once embarked in 
pursuit upon its picturesque flotilla of bellums, launches, 
paddle-steamers, horse-barges and gunboats. An 
unending series of uncharted mud-banks continually 
interrupted the progress of the extraordinary river 
armada, boats sticking sometimes for a day on a shoal, 
and having to wait till the large steamers arrived and 
dragged them off. A couple of gun-launches scouted 
ahead for possible ambushes which British aviators 
might have missed, and airmen in seaplanes and 
aeroplanes circled over Bagdad, and watched the 
enemy's lines of communication running across the 
desert towards Syria, and up the river towards the 
Caucasus heights. By November 9th General Towti- 
160 




The Sinking of^ 'iiu. '1 i kkish Battleship Messudiyeh. 
A thrilling incident of the Dardanelles campaign was the exploit of the British 
submarine B-11, under command of Lieut.-Commander Norman D Holbrook R N 
which entered the strait and in spite of the current, dived under five rows of mines and 
torpedoed the Turkish battleship Messudiyeh, which was guarding the mine field 
Although pursued by gun fire and torpedo boats, B-11 returned safely after being 
submerged on one occasion for nine hours. Lieutenant-Commander Holbrook was 
awarded the \. C. on December 21, just a year after he had been appointed to the 
command of the B-11 at Malta. 



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EMENDOUS FORCES ENGAGED IN LAND AND SEA OPERATIONS 



THE MESOPOTAMIAN CAMPAIGN 

shend's officers knew that the great adventure was 
about to be undertaken. The small British force 
was set the task of breaking through to Bagdad with a 
view to linking on with the advanced columns of the 
Russian army in the Caucasus. One of these columns 
was rapidly working down the Persian border by Lake 
Urmia, and another was advancing much farther 
south towards the city of Hamadan. From Bagdad 
to Hamadan the distance was 250 miles, across difficult 
and mountainous country. But it seems to have been 
thought that, with the Turks beaten at Bagdad, and 
the German-Persian force routed at Hamadan, the 
task of connecting the troops of Sir John Nixon 
and the army of the Grand Duke Nicholas would be 
fairly easy. On November 19th General Townshend's 
division having captured the village of Zeur marched 
against Nuredin Pasha's main system of defences. 
These works had been constructed eighteen miles 
from Bagdad, near the gaunt and imposing ruins of 
Ctesiphon, which loomed against the sky, at the edge 
of a reed-grown marsh, half a mile from the Tigris. 

NUKEDIN PASHA OUT-MANEUVERED 

Nuredin Pasha's army was greatly increased. He 
had four divisions strongly entrenched against four 
British brigades at Ctesiphon, with a large reserve 
of good troops encamped a little farther up the river near 
Bagdad, and composed probably of forces detached 
from the Caucasian front during midwinter. Yet, 
in spite of his overwhelming number of troops, his 
strong and well-planned lines, and his increased 
batteries of both hea\y and light artilieiy, the Turkish 

11 161 



THE MESOPOTAMIAN CAMPAIGN 



pasha entered the battle a half -beat en man. He had 
been so continually outmaneuvered by British com- 
manders with inferior forces that he could not trust 
his own judgment, and the truth is that the British 
needed only one division of the new armies that had 
been training for ten months in India in order to 
conquer Mesopotamia and capture Bagdad and Mosul. 
On the mihtary authority, or on the politician, who did 
not send General Townshend — a man of proved 
genius — the twelve thousand more bayonets he needed, 
rests the responsibility for all that afterwards happened. 
On the morning of November 22d the single Indo- 
British division attacked the four Turkish divisions, 
stormed their fortress lines, wiped out an entire army 
division, taking eight hundred prisoners and a large 
quantity of arms, and bivouacked victoriously in the 
captured works of defense. The Turkish report of the 
battle, spread through the world from the German wire- 
less stations, estimated the number of British troops at 
170,000. As a matter of fact, General Townshend, at 
an extreme estimate, could not have had more than 
25,000 men all told, and his striking force could not 
have exceeded 16,000 Indian and British infantrymen. 
In spite of heavy counter-attacks by the reinforced 
Turkish army, the British troops held on to the Turkish 
position at Ctesiphon till the night of November 24th, 
when want of water again robbed them of their full 
victory, and they had to retire four miles to the Tigris. 
Their position by the river, however, was too weak 
to be held, and as their small force had incurred heavy 
losses, many battalions being reduced to less than half 
their strength, a withdrawal was necessary. They 
162 



THE MESOPOTAMIAN CAMPAIGN 

removed their wounded to the boats, and embarked 
their prisoners, numbering 1,600, and then, after a 
rearguard action near Azizie, on the night of Novem- 
ber 30th, their troops retired in perfect order on Kut- 
el-Amara. Two of the river-boats, which had been 
disabled by the enemy's shell fire, had to be abandoned 
after their guns and engines had been made useless, 
and the pursuing Turkish army arrived within two 
hours' march of Kut on December 3d. 

Our losses around Ctesiphon were 643 killed, 3,330 
wounded, and 594 men not accounted for, bringing 
the total to 4,567. Having regard to the fine achieve- 
ment of the British, the list of their casualties was light, 
and if the British Government had given General 
Townshend and Sir John Nixon the comparatively 
small reinforcement of another division, Bagdad would 
certainly have been won at Ctesiphon. 



1^3 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE FRENCH ATTACK IN THE 
CHAMPAGNE DISTRICT 

EXTRAORDINARY GERMAN FORTRESS — KETTLE- 
DRUMS OF DEATH OPENING OF THE ASSAULT — 

GENERAL DE CASTELNAU's SCHEME MIRACULOUS 

ADVANCES — FRENCH TROOPS ROUND MASSIGES — 
AWFUL SLAUGHTER AT TROU BRICOT — CHECK AT 
BOIS SABOT. 

THERE IS an ancient Roman road running from 
Rheims to the Argonne Forest. About twenty miles 
cast of Rheims this Roman way crosses the Suippes 
River near the small town of Auberive; thence it runs 
for about fifteen miles to the outskirts of the forest, 
some distance south of the hamlet of Massiges. The 
country through which the old road runs is a barren 
table-land of chalk that continually swells into low, 
rounded hills, many of which have been planted with 
pine-trees. The land is part of the Champagne dis- 
trict, but to mark it from the fertile region of famous 
vineyards the French themselves call the unfruitful 
waste of chalk Lousy Champagne. This coarse term 
is indeed quite an official geographical expression 
among the French. 

Immediately south of the Roman road is a vast 
circle of earthworks, known as the Camp de Chalons. 
Old tradition has it that the earthworks were made 
164 



THE FRENCH ATTACK 

by Attila, king of the Huns, whose forces were for the 
first time broken in a great battle on the plateau, 
whereby Paris was saved and the Huns chased from 
France. A few miles due west of Attila's camp is the 
hamlet of Valmy, where the Army of the French Revo- 
lution won its first victory over the Royal forces of 
Prussia and Austria, and thereby founded the demo- 
cratic movement in modern Europe. For these 
reasons all the poor, mean country was holy ground to 
the French soldier, and despite the previous checks 
to the Army of Champagne, the general opinion in 
France was that over the stretch of chalk between 
the Argonne and Rheims the decisive advance against 
the German host would at last take place; for it was 
at this position that the breaking of the German front 
would be most disastrous to the enemy. All the 
invaders' lines, from Zeebrugge and the Yser to the 
northern heights of the Aisne, and the hills round 
Rheims would be taken in flank and the rear, and 
menaced by a cutting of all the lines of communica- 
tion if a French army crossed the Dormoise and Py 
streams. But the Germans proudly boasted that their 
lines in Champagne were absolutely impregnable, and 
General von Kluck remarked to a German-American 
war correspondent that the position was that, if he 
could not take Paris, neither could the French capture 
Vouziers. 

Between Vouziers and the French front there were 
four fortified lines, each a mile or more apart. All the 
downs, on and between these lines, were deeply exca- 
vated and transformed into underground fortresses, 
armed with quick-firing batteries, mortars for aerial 

165 



THE FRENCH ATTACK 

torpedoes, piping for the emission of poison-gas clouds, 
and thousands of machine-guns. Of all their military 
engineering works the Germans most prided them- 
selves upon their Champagne defenses. These defenses 
had been greatly strengthened and extended since the 
French made their first great thrust in February, 1915. 
The French had then captured the first German line, 
running close to the Roman road by the hamlet of 
Perthes. But the loss of this line had put the German 
engineers on their mettle, and in the intervening 
months they had brought up hundreds more guns and 
thousands more Maxims; they had fitted many of the 
sunken invisible forts with domes of armored steel, 
and had driven a series of tunnels through the chalk 
to allow of supports being moved to the fire trenches 
safely through the heaviest storm of shrapnel and 
melinite shell. 

KETTLE-DRUMS OF DEATH 

Despite the confused haste with which this large 
medley of forces was assembled, the German com- 
mander on the Champagne front, General von Einem, 
had so absolute an assurance of victory that on the 
eve of the struggle he invited German war corre- 
spondents to come and watch the spectacle of his 
triumph. It was from one of these correspondents, 
Dr. Max Osborn, of the ''Vossische Zeitung," that we 
obtained the best description of the French bombard- 
ment. After telling how the French heavy artillery 
swept the German rear, seeking to explode hand- 
bomb depots and other magazines of ammunition, 
the German with the English name said : " The violence 
166 



THE FRENCH ATTACK 

of the bombardment then reached its zenith. At 
first it had been a raging, searching fire; now it became 
a mad drumming, beyond all power of imagination. 
It is impossible to give any idea of the savagery of this 
hurricane of shells. Never has this old planet heard 
such an uproar. An officer who had witnessed in the 
summer the horrors of the Souchez and the Lorette 
heights, told me they could not in any way be com- 
pared with this inconceivably appalling artillery on- 
slaught. Night and day for fifty hours, and in some 
places for seventy hours, the French guns vomited 
death and destruction against the German troops and 
the German batteries. Our strongly-built trenches 
were filled in, and ground to powder; their parapets 
and fire platforms were razed and turned into dust- 
heaps; and the men in them were buried, crushed, 
and suffocated. One of our privates, a high-school 
young man who survived, amused himself by counting 
the shells that fell in his limited field of vision. He 
calculated that nearly a hundred thousand projectiles 
fell around him in fifty hours." 

By September 24th the bombardment reached its 
sustained level of intensity, and a trifling event that 
happened in the evening told the soldiers that the 
advance was about to be made. They were given an 
extra ration of wine. They tried to sleep, with the 
kettle-drums of death roaring close behind them, and 
when reveille sounded at half-past five on Saturday 
morning, September 25th, the men drank their coffee, 
and as the guns made talk impossible, they squatted 
in their shelters, as far out of the rain as they could 
get, and smoked their pipes. 

167 



THE FRENCH ATTACK 

At a quarter past nine, as the rain was falling more 
heavily, a long line of strange figures leaped from the 
fire-trenches, and charged across the grassy slopes, 
over which the gas cloud had rolled. Clad in their 
new invisible blue uniforms with steel helmets to pro- 
tect them from shrapnel, the infantry looked more 
like medieval warriors than like modern soldiers. 
Their bayoneted rifles resembled the ancient spears, 
and the most novel w^eapon they carried, the hand- 
bomb, was but a deadlier form of the old-fashioned 
grenade. Most of the battalions seem to have been 
divided into two sections, bombers and bayoneters. 
On reaching the first German trenches, the men with 
the bayonets crossed them and charged farther into 
the German lines, while the men with the bombs 
stayed in the captured position until they had smashed 
the Germans out of it. 

OPENING OF THE ASSAULT 

The first waves of the assault broke over the entire 
German front, from Auberive to the Argonne Forest, 
for a length of fifteen miles. But this was only meant 
to test the general strength of the enemy and pin his 
men down to every yard of the Champagne position. 
The main series of thrusts were then delivered at four 
points, the men advancing in narrow but very long 
and loose masses which spread out behind the first 
hostile line of do\^^ls. On the extreme left, at the 
village of Auberive, where the Germans held most of 
the fortified houses and the French were deeply 
entrenched along the southern outskirts, little progress 
could be made. Here the force of the French attac!: 
168 



THE FRENCH ATTACK 

was skilfully directed northwestward up the long 
slopes leading to the hamlet of L'Epine de Vedegrange. 
Another strong attacking force was directed from 
Souain through the Punch-bowl northward and against 
a line of fortified heights known as Hill 185, on which 
Navarin Farm lay, the Butte of Souain, and Tree 
Hill. Eastward of Tree Hill Vv^as the formidable height 
of Tahure Butte, with the village of Tahure south of 
it, and in the triangle of Tahure, Souain, and Perthes 
villages was the immense German fortress called the 
Trou Bricot, and nicknamed the Hollow of Death. 
East of this hollow was the fortressed escarpment of 
the Butte of Mesnil. Eastward of Mesnil was Bastion 
Crest, with the group of houses called Maisons de 
Champagne behind it, and still farther eastward, near 
the edge of the Argonne Forest, was a large hand- 
shaped down, known as the Hand of Massiges, with 
south of it a quarried hill, called from its curious 
appearance the Earhole. 

GENERAL DE CASTELNAU's SCHEME 

General de Castelnau's main scheme was to penetrate 
between each principal German hill position, and then 
turn and encircle it with two flanking columns. But 
before this could be done, the first German line had to 
be captured, the strength of each hostile fortress tested, 
and then the columns had to advance along the valleys 
and the slopes with terrible enfilading fires sweeping 
them on both sides. It was afterwards calculated by 
observers of the conquered ground that along this 
front of fifteen miles, with a depth of two and a half 
miles, the German engineers had constructed nearly 

169 



THE FRENCH ATTACK 

four hundred miles of trenches. And, despite the 
extraordinary duration and intensity of the French 
bombardment, in which miUions of shells were used, 
this enormous system of human warrens was only 
damaged badly on the front slopes and in the southern- 
most hollows between the downs. The high ramparts 
of chalk protected from destruction far the greater 
part of the vast earthworks. The new French 
howitzers threw to a height of 12,000 feet a very 
heavy shell that descended almost vertically. Yet 
this wonderful projectile could not destroy the sheltered 
caverns and trenches in the downs on which the Ger- 
man sappers had been laboring for twelve months. 

MIRACULOUS ADVANCES 

Both the French and British leading divisions had 
made advances of a miraculous kind. In particular, 
the position of the Colonial troops at Maisons de 
Champagne resembled that of the Highland Brigade 
at the Cite St. Auguste at Lens. Pouring with sweat, 
the men had stormed through machine-gun fire, wire 
entanglements, rows of trenches, and gun positions, 
and after a rush of three miles they reached the last 
crest of chalk from which the valley of the Dormoise 
and the village of Ripont were dominated. Had sup- 
ports quickly arrived, the road to Vouziers, Namur, 
and Liege would have been won. But, apparently, 
the single battalion that reached the Maisons, having 
lost all its officers and being commanded by a sergeant, 
had moved too quickly. The French Staff could not 
get more men up in time, and the half-shattered 
battalion, caught between two flanking fires from 
170 



THE FRENCH ATTACK 

Massiges and Beausejour, and attacked in front from 
Ripont, had to leave the heavy German and Austrian 
batteries it had captured on the crest, and fall back 
at two o'clock on Saturday afternoon. 

The French mountain-gun, first issued in small 
numbers to the Chasseurs in the mountains had 
become the supreme weapon for nearly all battlefields. 
It was a variation of the "75," lighter and shorter of 
range, but with a higher angle of fire. It was used 
close behind the troops, almost like a machine-gun, 
but while a machine-gun could not hit men behind a 
hill, the mountain-gun could shell or shrapnel enemy 
troops sheltering in a hollow or on the reverse slopes of a 
down. Under the cover of a bombardment of this kind 
the French bombers rushed to the German hill trenches, 
and flung in grenades, forcing the Germans to retreat. 

FRENCH TROOPS ROUND MASSIGES 

From September 25th to the 30th, the Germans 
round Massiges continually counter-attacked, with a 
view to winning back their lost line. It was then that 
they suffered quite as heavy losses as the French had 
done in their attacks. The last of the German counter- 
attacks came from Cernay, in the northeast. The 
troops deployed at the foot of the slopes of the little 
rounded down known as La Justice. But the French 
light guns shattered this counter-attack before it got 
under way, and the troops round La Justice broke and 
fled in a panic. This was quite an extraordinary 
feature of the conflict, for hitherto the German soldiers 
had fought with remarkable tenacity, and when 
defeated had either surrendered or been killed. The 

171 



THE FRENCH ATTACK 

spectacle of a large body of veteran enemy troops 
breaking and fleeing in panic under shell fire was 
regarded by the French command as highly significant. 

AWFUL SLAUGHTER AT TROU BRICOT 

Trou Bricot, seen first on the photographs taken by 
the reconnoitring French airmen, formed three round, 
pale blots, connected by a long white streak — the 
communication trench. Then there were six more 
whitish rounds, strung along the white line like balls 
on a string. It was on the white line that the French 
gunners began their work, and their heaviest shells 
fell in hundreds, at a range of five miles, on the main 
communication trench, cutting the telephone wires, 
destroying the shrapnel-proof passages, and choking 
the outlet. Then, at a signal from the watching air- 
men, a hurricane of shells fell on Trou Bricot and on 
the great Elberfeldt Camp behind it, and turned the 
gigantic fortress into a slaughter-house. The German 
divisions that garrisoned the extraordinary fortress 
were so staggered and dazed by the bombardment 
that a single division of French-African troops sweep- 
ing up the road from Souain to Tahure cut them off 
in the rear from Tree Hill and the position of Baraque, 
where the Breton Division, advancing from the other 
side of the work, connected and formed a great net 
with the Savoy troops working forward from the 
Pocket in front. 

CHECK AT BOIS SABOT 

The Bois Sabot was a horse-shoe-shaped fortress, 
surrounding a pine-wood on the right of Navarin 
172 



THE FRENCH ATTACK 

Farm. The work spread along the foot and sides of a 
gently-sloping hill, and it was laid out with such skill 
by the German engineers that they regarded it as 
one of the strongest points in their entire line of 
defense. The heavy bombardment had done little 
damage to its network of v/ire entanglements and 
deep subterranean lines ; and in the evening of Septem- 
ber 25th the French troops could only lie flat on their 
stomachs near this work, with the rain pouring on them 
and asphyxiating shells from the German batteries 
along the Py River blinding and strangling them. 
It w^as then that the Foreign Legion advanced through 
a curtain of shrapnel and flung themselves down by 
the Colonials. The Colonials were relieved in the 
night by the Zouaves and Moroccan troops, and the 
Legion crawled the following day into a stretch of 
woods to prepare for an attack. But the weather was 
so foggy that the French guns on September 26th and 
September 27th could not do any useful w^ork, and, 
much to the disadvantage of the Allies, the fighting 
had to be temporarily suspended, so that the enemy 
won forty-eight hours in which to bring down reinforce- 
ments, guns, and ammunition to the Champagne 
front. 

At last, at half-past three in the afternoon of Sep- 
tember 28th, the air cleared sufficiently for the attack 
to be launched. The Legion had lost more than half 
its force in the great drive on the Vimy Heights in 
Artois in the spring, when it penetrated farther than 
any French troops. But two thousand more foreign 
lovers of France had since joined the Legion, and 
brought it up to full strength. 

173 



THE FRENCH ATTACK 

In the advance from Souain, in the pine-wood near 
Navarin Farm, the Legionaries had again lost nearly a 
quarter of their men from shell and shrapnel before 
firing a shot. This made them very angry. They 
always disliked being in reserve when a charge was 
made, and they asked their colonel, in the evening 
of September 27th, to beg the general at Souain to 
let the Legion, as a special favor, lead the grand 
charge against the enemy's last line. 

The request was allowed, and the famous corps, 
which has figured in so many romantic novels since 
Ouida wrote ^^ Under Two Flags," went out to die. 
Every Legionary knew that he was doomed; for the 
plan of attack was that the Legion should fling itself 
straight on the front of the fortress of Bois Sabot, and 
there engage the enemy with such fury that 12,000 
other men — Zouaves, Moors, and Colonials — could 
make a surprise attack on both flanks. The Legion 
gathered in the woods in two columns, and then, amid 
the cheers of the French troops occupying the trenches 
in front of them, they leapt across these trenches, 
over the heads of their comrades, and charged across 
the zone of death into the mouth of the Horse-shoe. 
First a rain of shrapnel smote them: then the stream 
of bullets from machine-guns and rifles caught them in 
the front and raked them on both sides. With a dense 
curtain of shrapnel behind it and torrents of lead 
pouring on its front and flanks, the Legion was mowed 
dowTi as by a gigantic scythe. Platoons fell to a man, 
but the regiment went forward. At some points in 
the line the stream of lead was so thick that falling 
men were turned over and over, the dead bodies being 
174 



THE FRENCH ATTACK 

rolled along the ground by more bullets, as withered 
leaves roll in the winds of autumn. Yet some men of 
the leading battalion lived through it, and, reaching 
the wire entanglements, pounded them aside with the 
butts of their rifles. But of that battalion only one 
man got through the wires, and he fell headlong into 
the first German trench with a bullet through his 
knee. Then the second battalion followed, and a few 
men lived to get into the first trench and began to 
clear it out. But the last battalions of the Legion 
came forward in a tiger-spring and bombed and bayo- 
neted their way into the fortress. 

There, in the maze of trenches, and the shattered 
pine-wood, the Legion fought to the last man, and 
when the other troops closed on the flanks there were 
very few Germans alive in Bois Sabot. The Foreign 
Legion had also perished; only a small handful of its 
men remained. But in its great death-struggle the 
regiment had done one of the most amazing things in 
war. And when the noise of its achievement spread 
through France and echoed over the earth, thousands 
of volunteers from neutral countries came to Paris 
to enlist. Thus out of its glorious ashes the most 
famous of all corps in the modern world was born again 
from the inspiration given by the men who died on 
Vimy Ridge in Artois and the slopes of Bois Sabot in 
Champagne. Such is the power of the heroism of the 
dead upon the minds of living men who have scarcely 
any call to fight; for it was the Swiss, the American, 
the Scandinavian, and the Spaniard and Portuguese 
who traveled at their own expense to France to join 
the new Foreign Legion. The heroism of the Legion 

175 



THE FRENCH ATTACK 

firmly established the Army of Champagne in the 
region of Navarin Farm. 

In all some 26,000 German prisoners were taken in 
Champagne, besides three hundred and fifty officers 
and one hundred and fifty cannon. And as the enemy 
sufiered terribly in counter-attacks, the total French 
losses were at least balanced by those of Einem's, 
Ileeringen's and the Crown Prince's troops. It is 
calculated that the killed, wounded and captured 
among the Germans were equivalent to the infantry of ■ 
six army corps, or about 150,000 men. Fully twelve 
German army corps were shattered, and had to with- 
draw for large drafts. The general result of the French 
thrust in Champagne and the British thrust in Artois 
was that the enemy's entire strength was so dimin- 
ished that the pressure against the Russian armies 
was g^^eatly relaxed. This was the principal achieve- 
ment of the western Allies. They obtained breathing 
space for Russia. 



176 



CHAPTER XV 
ITALY'S PART IN THE WAR 

HOW TEUTONIC CONSPIRACY DELAYED THE ATTACK 

AGAINST AUSTRIA ITALY's BOLD INITIAL STROKE 

BATTLE OF MONTE CROCE — • WESTERN TYROL 

THREATENED GALLANT ITALIAN SAPPERS BATTLE 

OF PLAVA MALBORGHETTO FORTS OBLITERATED 

FREIKOFEL, CRESTA VERDA AND ZELLENKOFEL 

THE ATTACK ON PREGASINA INCREDIBLE ENGI- 
NEERING FEATS FIGHTING NATURE. 

IT WOULD be necessary to go back fifty years into 
history to explain why it was that Bismarck's treachery 
placed in Austrian hands every mountain pass through 
which an ItaUan army could move against Austria. 
Yet this was the condition which Italy faced upon her 
entrance into the Great War. Even this fearful 
handicap would have been less onerous if General 
Cadorna had been able to make the surprise attack 
against Austria which he had planned. By the 
cunningness of plutocratic German interests in 
Italy, Signor GioHtti, the chief representative of 
Teutonism in Italy, intervened and overthrew the 
War Cabinet, delaying hostilities for nineteen 
days. But against these tremendous odds the 
Italian troops started their campaign with a series 
of brilliant successes, because the enemy reckoned 
them too lightly, 
w 177 



ITALY'S PART IN THE WAR 

Italy's bold initial stroke 

Thus it befeU that the Archduke Eugene, with 
General von Hofer as his Chief of Staff, and Dankl 
as army commander in the Tyrol, made the mistake 
of holding the first line on the Austrian frontier with a 
ridiculously small number of troops. The Alpini and 
the Bersagheri, with some battalions of the line and 
some gendarm^es, crossed the frontier soon after mid- 
night of May 21, 1915, at all the strategical points, 
and by a hundred swift, fierce little skirmishes, began 
to reverse the positions of Austria and Italy. 

Meanwhile the Alpine troops were climbing 
the mountain, by ways only known to themselves 
through many mountaineering excursions undertaken 
by their leaders in summer holidays. The officers led 
the men over the trackless screes and rocky falls, over 
glaciers and snowdrifts, and then descended the oppo- 
site slopes at some distance behind the enemy van- 
guards skirmishing near the entrance to the path. 

By the evening of May 25th, all the passes of the 
Dolomite Alps were won, and good breaches were made 
at Tonale Pass along the northwest and in the Carnic 
and Julian Alps along the northeast front. 

The gun trains began to move more rapidly towards 
the holes made in the great mountain rampart, and 
tens of thousands of Italian engineers went up by train 
and motor-vehicles, and started building trenches and 
maldng gun emplacements. Meanwhile, the main 
Italian Infantry force, consisting of the Third Army, 
moved with great speed across the Friuli Plain through 
Udinc, Palmanova, and St. Georgio, where two railway 
Unes ran into the Isonzo Valley and the Torre VaUey. 
178 



ITALY'S PART IN THE WAR 

Here the covering troops had moved forward over the 
frontier at midnight on May 24th, and in a single day 
they captured nearly all the towns and villages between 
the frontier and the Isonzo River, from Caporetto, 
nesthng in the north below the precipices of Monte 
Nero, to the hamlet of Belvedere southward on the 
Gulf of Trieste. 

The Italian Commander-in-Chief, having conquered 
practically all the enemy's first line along a front of 
three hundred miles, waited to see in what sector the 
Austrian pressure would be most strongly felt. The 
answering counter-thrust of the enemy came at Monte 
Croce Pass, in the Carnic Alps, on May 29th. It was 
a foggy day, and under cover of the mist the enemy 
massed a strong force through the railway from Villach 
and brought them to Mauthen, from which they made 
five stubborn attempts to regain the pass. The Alpini 
and Bersaglieri swept away each wave of assault by 
musketry and machine-gun fire at almost point-blank 
range; then, leaping up after the last attack, they 
drove the enemy down the valley at the point of the 
bayonet. 

BATTLE OF MONTE CROCE 

This was only the beginning of the Battle of Monte 
Croce. Each side had large forces within caU, and 
fed the troops up the valleys as the fighting-hnes 
wasted. So the struggle continued day and night, 
while the Italian commander pushed over the neigh- 
boring passes and strengthened himself for the great 
counter-attack. The height known as Freikofel, com- 
manding the Plocken Plateau, near Monte Croce Pass, 

179 



ITALY'S PART IN THE WAR 

was stormed on June 8th, and the Pass of Valentina 
and the Pass of Oregione, 7,590 feet high, overlooking 
the thicldy- wooded Gail Valley, were taken. The last 
pass was won by the Alpini climbing over the white 
mass of Paralba and fighting their way down to the 
high saddle. 

When war broke out, sand-bags, machine-gims, and 
quick-firers were hauled up to the eyrie, and in a few 
hours a governmentally-subsidized hotel on the road 
to Falzarego became a splendid fort, with quarters for 
a large garrison, and guns dominating the far-famed 
ravine. But the Alpini were led by men with ingenious 
minds and minute knowledge of the ground. ]Most 
of the fighting took place on the great northern 
mountain height, crowned by the glaciers and snow- 
fields of Tofana, and around the Cinque Torri, a line 
of apparently inaccessible peaks. 

WESTERN TYROL THREATENED 

At Falzarego and Sasso d'Istria the Italian troops 
were approaching the rear of the Col di Lana, and its 
neighboring mountain masses on which the fortress 
defending Cordevole Valley were constructed. 

General Cadorna, having both the gift of strategy 
and ample fighting troops of fine quality, was able 
to impose his will on his adversary. The Austrians 
had only to advance some twenty miles across their 
Trentino frontier to reach Verona, that city of old 
romance still fragrant wdth the memories of Romeo 
and Juliet. 

All the first striking successes by General Cadorna, 
between the last week in May, 1915, and the third 
180 



ITALY'S PART IN THE WAR 

week in August, 1915, were accomplished with a total 
casualty Hst of less than 30,000 names. The Austro- 
Hungarian losses in the same period on the same front 
were 18,000 dead, 54,000 wounded, and 18,000 prisoners. 

GALLANT ITALIAN SAPPERS 

Along the Isonzo the retreating Austrians had broken 
down the high embankment used to carry off the snow- 
water, and had thereby inundated the plain in the 
manner of the Belgain Yser defenses. The gallant 
Italian sappers, working under a plunging fire from the 
enemy's batteries on the mountains, foothills, and 
Carso table-land, had rapidly thrown some light pon- 
toon bridges over the flood. Along these frail tem- 
porary structures the first Itahan contingents crossed 
in the darkness, took the first line of Austrian trenches 
near the waterside, and broke up the light artillery 
positions close to the river. 

The Isonzo was forced by a smashing bayonet attack, 
and the Italian troops headed by motor-cyclists with 
machine-guns, cycling scouts, and aeroplane observers, 
flowed in two arms around every position at which the 
Austrians tried to make a stand. By this continual 
threat of an encircling movement they forced the 
Austrians into Monfalcone. The enemy then for the 
first time displayed a telling ingenuity in warfare. 
Like the Turk in the Suvla Bay battles, he set fire to 
some of the slopes which the ItaHans were attacking. 
But while the pine-wood near Monfalcone flared to 
the skies, the quick-maneuvering Italians, headed by 
a grenadier battalion, broke into the open town and 
occupied it, after storming the Rocca promontory. 

181 



ITALY'S PART IN THE WAR 

All went well during the week following the capture 
of Monfalcone. General Cadorna had the keen joy of 
recapturing the Isonzo town of Gradisca, which his 
father had won from the same foe forty-nine years 
before. This capture completed the Italian control of 
the Lower Isonzo, and the general attack on all the 
fortresses guarding Trieste was then prepared. 

THE BATTLE OF PLAVA 

In the center of this long fortress-hne was the 
railway town of Plava, lying on the eastern bank of 
the Isonzo, beneath the wooded heights of Ternovane 
Forest. It was a key position, and the general Italian 
offensive began by a night attack on Plava, from 
Mount Korada on the other side of the river. The 
Italian sappers, with great coolness and skill, built a 
pontoon bridge in the darkness; and the infantry 
crossed the water on June 17th, and by a violent 
bayonet attack carried the town and the surrounding 
heights. The Italian general, having breached the 
enemy's second line in this place, poured strong forces 
into the gap, and a great battle took place on the edge 
of the forested highland. The Itahan heavy artillery 
across the river on Mount Korada was able to send a 
plunging fire on the lower table-land, and with this 
help the dashing Italian troops won the battle and drove 
the enemy back. 

The first grand open-field battle began on June 22d, 
and it was not until the last days of July that the 
battle drew to a close. In this long and terrible 
conflict in the open field, the theatre of which included 
all the Carso front, the Vipacco River valJey, and the 
182 



ITALY'S PART IN THE WAR 



southern part of the Ternovane Forest, the enemy 
suffered such heavy losses that his army was half 
shattered. 

Yet his position had been found impregnable by the 
forces of the Itahan commander, for the five hundred 
guns which the Italian general employed were quite 
inadequate. The ground was unassailable. There 
are innumerable caves from which quick-firing guns 
could be worked, and labyrinths of crags and scat- 
tered rocks, and fohage-hung cliffs behind which 
large reserves could safely be sheltered. 

But General Boroevics lost all the tremendous 
natural advantages of this immense natural fortress 
when he sent his divisions charging across the open 
ground against the fines to which the Itafians were 
cfinging; for though the Itafians only held on to the 
rim of the table-land, with a flooded river a third of a 
mile broad beneath them, yet their weU-built sand-bag 
trenches gave them exceUent cover against theenemy's 
artifiery. 

The first phase of the Battle of Gorizia ended in the 
repulse of the Austrian counter-attack in the middle of 
July. General Cadorna then defivered a fiercer assault, 
based on the knowledge he had obtained by his first 
reconnaissance in force. For three days and nights- 
July 18th, 19th and 20th— the troops of the Itafian 
Second and Third Armies leaped forward with heroic 
energy aU along the zone of the Isonzo, and broke 
through the wire entanglements and the armored 
trenches, taking 3,500 prisoners. As a rule, the Itafians 
attacked by day, and then resisted in their newly-won 
positions the nocturnal counter-attacks by the enemy. 

183 



ITALY'S PART IN THE WAR 



Owing to the fine work of their engineers, they retained 
all the ground they had won, and began to deHver 
night attacks on July 20th. 

BOTH SIDES REINFORCED 

But the next morning General Cadorna stayed the 
forward movement of the Duke of Aosta, and bringing 
reinforcements, ordered every man to help the engineers 
in strengthening and extending the trenches; for the 
commander, either through his aerial observers or his 
secret agents, had obtained knowledge that the enemy 
was about to make his supreme effort. July 21st 
passed quietly; then, on July 22d, a mightier concen- 
tration of heavy Austrian artillery opened a hurricane 
fire on the Italian lines. 

SUPREME AUSTRIAN EFFORT 

The main infantry attack was delivered towards 
Gradisca, where the ItaUans had built their chief 
bridges across the Isonzo. The first line of Italian 
troops could not kill the closely packed lines quickly 
enough, and it seemed as though the position would 
be lost. But the Italian gunnery officers, watching tha 
operation from their observing-posts, had the situation 
v/ell in hand, and at the critical moment a storm of 
shrapnel from five hundred guns and howitzers fell on 
the large target in front of the first ItaHan line, and 
made such holes in it that the garrison of the fire-trench 
beat back the remnant of the attacking masses with 
little difficulty. 

The next day General Boroevics launched another 
strong attack on the Itafian positions near the sea-edge 
184 



ITALY'S PART IN THE WAR 

of the Carso table-land, but it failed completely, though 
the rough ground did not permit the Italians to make 
another fierce pursuit. Finally two Austrian divisions, 
which advanced from the heights of San Michele and 
San Martino to storm Sagrado, were so smashed up 
that, on July 25th, the Italian troops were able to carry 
some of the entrenched slopes of San Martino, and to 
storm the hill of Sei Busi. 

The crest of San Michele was very important, as it 
dominated a large part of the table-land, and the main 
tide of battle surged around and over it for many days. 
At last the ItaHan infantry, on July 27th, tearing for- 
ward with passionate ardor, bombed and bayoneted 
their way to the summit, along which they then tried 
to estabhsh themselves. They also sand-bagged part 
of the lower slope facing the enemy; but under the 
torrent of high-explosive and asphyxiating shell the 
crest and the exposed slopes beneath it could not be 
garrisoned. 

Like the grand drive of the Franco-British forces at 
Massiges and Loos, the Italian offensive on the Gorizia 
fortress chain failed to break the enemy's resistance. 
Yet, as in Artois and Champagne, so on the Isonzo, 
the heroism, endurance, and violence of effort of the 
attacking forces were tremendous. 

When it is remembered that Gibraltar, with only a 
hundred guns, held out against the attacking forces of 
two kingdoms for more than three and a half years, 
it cannot be wondered that the ItaUan army found 
the great, peaked, rocky mass of the Carso a very 
difficult thing to conquer; for most of the advantages 
derived from the developments in modern artillery 

m 



ITALY'S PART IN THE WAR 

rested with the defending forces. In particular the 
Austrians had heavy mobile batteries, moving on 
newly-made railway tracks, and lighter motor-batteries 
working along many new branching roads. These 
could seldom be put out of action, and they came 
rapidly into the battlefield when a movement of the 
Italian infantry was signaled on the observation 
heights. AH night the table-land was swept by search- 
lights, which quickly picked out any body of troops 
trying to steal an advance, and lighted them up for 
destruction by the artillery. All the wire entangle- 
ments were charged with deadly currents of electricity; 
and more formidable than all the guns, howitzers, 
poison-gas cylinders, aerial torpedoes and flame-pro- 
jectors which the enemy employed, was his ubiquitous 
and skilfully used secondary armament of machine- 
guns. The sea-mists, floating in from the Adriatic, 
often tempted the Italian sand-bag brigades to make 
a dash for the enemy trench, when the hostile artillery 
was blanketed with the fog. But even in these circum- 
stances the remarkably complete organization of the 
enemy enabled him to parry a stab through the fog. 
As soon as a trench was lost telephone reports reached 
the German and Austrian gunners, and these, knowing 
to an inch the range of the lost, invisible position, 
battered it with asphyxiating sheU, by way of prepara- 
tion for a strong counter-attack by their bombing 
parties Such were the conditions under which the 
Third Itahan Army wore down the opposing eft^ectives, 
and very gradually yet continually worked forward 
to the Doberdo Plateau. The heroism displayed in 
this work will never be fully known. 
186 



ITALY'S PART IN THE WAR 

A SEEMING STALEMATE 

By the middle of November, 1915, the situation on 
the Carso table-land resembled that in Champagne. 
The enemy had been driven back to his last line, and 
Iiad been compelled to bring up half a milUon more 
troops. Having, however, won time to recover from 
the blow VN^hich he had received. General Boroevics 
constructed another system of lines behind the Doberdo 
Plateau, so that his position was practically as strong 
as it had been before. To all appearance the Italian 
army, like the Franco-British forces on the western 
front, was in a position of stalemate. 

Meanwhile, the still more exciting, difficult, and 
wildly picturesque work of Alpine warfare went on in 
the Julian, Carnic, Dolomite, Trentino, and Tyrolean 
mountains. In the Julian Alps the fighting moun- 
taineers of Italy had a starthng stroke of luck in the 
first phase of the struggle. From an order issued by 
the Austrian commander, General Rohr, it appears 
that two of his companies were set to guard a formi- 
dable rampart of rock between Tohnino and Monte 
Nero. Leaving a few men at the post of observation, 
both companies used to sleep at night. The Alpinists 
clambered over the mountain in the darkness, killed 
the watchmen silently with the knife, and then dropped 
in the rear of the two sleeping companies and captured 
them. This is a good instance of those happy-go-lucky 
methods of the Austrian officer. 

MALBORGHETTO FORTS OBLITERATED 

Then at the western end of the great ring of fortified 
heights, barring the Predil Pass and the highway and 

187 



ITALY'S PART IN THE WAR 

railway running into the heart of Austria, was Malbor- 
ghetto. The Italians quicldy brought their heaviest 
howitzers against the Malborghetto forts, and reduced 
Fort Hensel and other permanent works to the same 
condition as that to which the Skoda guns had reduced 
the Li^ge Forts. 

FREIKOFEL, CRESTA VERDE AND ZELLENKOFEL 

Freikofel was one of the smaller peaks that stood out 
continually in the hmelight of war. The Alpini cap- 
tured it by a surprise attack with scarcely any loss, 
and then for months the Austrian commander sacrificed 
battalions and regiments, and even brigades, in vain 
attempts to recover the key-height in the central pass 
of the Carnic Alps. But the loss of Freikofel, 
though followed by the loss of Cresta Verde, near 
the Zellenkofcl, on June 24th, did not quicken 
the minds of the Austrian officers; for in the first week 
in July the extremely important observation peak of 
Zellenkofel was lost by them. The enemy had a squad 
of forty men and some observation officers entrenched 
on the crest. Below them, on the reverse slope, was 
a battery of their mountain guns, with indirect fire to 
sweep the southern slopes of the heights. The battery 
was in telephonic communication with the observation 
station, and the station could also speak by wire to more 
distant batteries of heavy howitzers, and to the large 
infantry reserves collected in the wooded valley. 

But both the men and the officers on the peak were 
lulled into a blind sense of security by their extraor- 
dinary position; for, on the side on which they faced 
the Itahans, there was not a slope, but an almost 
188 



ITALY'S PART IN THE WAR 



perpendicular precipice, with a fall of thousands of feet. 
In the darkness, twenty-nine Alpini, with an officer, 
crept up to the foot of the precipice with ropes and a 
machine-gun. The finest climbers — men who had 
made a special study of the Zellenkofel — pulled them- 
selves up by jutting rocks, and then let down ropes 
by which the other men ascended with a machine-gun. 
A clatter of falling stones would have alarmed the 
enemy but the footholds and the ropeholds were 
so skilfully chosen that no detached pieces of rock 
were toppled over. Just at moonrise the Alpini squad 
reached the crest, shot down the sentries, and then 
killed the garrison of the observation station by a 
bayonet charge. There then followed a long and 
desperate fight with the mountain battery on the 
reverse slope. But by means of the machine-gun the 
Austrians were shattered in trying to make a charge, 
and their guns were captured just as day was breaking. 

THE ATTACK ON PREGASINA 

A striking victory, which had decisive consequence, 
was the attack on Pregasina, by the edge of Lake 
Garda, which was undertaken in bad weather in the 
second week in October, 1915. On the opposite side 
of the lovely waters the Itahans had won Monte 
Altissimo early in the campaign. They now demon- 
strated against the town of Riva from this height, and 
drew the enemy's fire, while across the lake, in difficult 
mountain country, the western attacking force reached 
the enemy's entrenchments and cut the wires at 
Pregasina. Then, screened by a dense fog, the Italian 
troops charged and took the hill, and though the Riva 

189 



ITALY'S PART IN THE WAR 

guns massed their fire on the victors, and poured 
asphyxiating shells on them, the Italians took the town, 
and swept through it and conquered the northern hills 
dominating the Ledro Valley. 

INCREDIBLE ENGINEERING FEATS 

The Austrians, it is said, tried to do the same thing; 
but after getting a twelve-inch Skoda gun halfway 
up a mountain they had to let it down again. Their 
engineers had not arranged the roping properly, or 
chosen the best scene of operations. Probably not 
since the Pyramids were built have human hands 
successfully tugged at such gigantic weights as the 
hardy peasantry of Italy, Sardinia, and Sicily lifted 
at need a mile above sea-level. The small guns were 
raised two miles above the sea by means of ropes, and 
by the same primitive method large stores of shells and 
provisions were hoisted above the clouds into the region 
of everlasting snow. Fuel was hauled up, and tools 
and dynamite for making caves in which to live in 
Eskimo fashion, when the valleys far below were still 
sweltering in almost semi-tropical heat. 

FIGHTING NATURE 

But towards the middle of September all this extraor- 
dinary Alpine warfare began to slacken, for winter was 
setting in, and veins of snow appeared on the bare 
rocks and broadened into white fields. Preparations 
for an arctic campaign had been going on for months. 
Wire railways ran from the valley and caves on the 
summits; strong lowland torrents, that were known 
not to freeze, were harnessed to dynamos, and the 
190 



ITALY'S PART IN THE WAR 

currents were wired up to the heights to warm, light, 
and do cooking for the fur-clad garrisons of the peaks. 
Great stores of ordinary fuel and food were also hoisted 
up to the detachments Hkely to be cut off for weeks, 
or even for months, by the snow. Then in many 
places it was possible to arrange for snow-clearers to 
fight each fall of snow, and keep a practicable white 
ravine running to the mountain-top, by which frequent 
reliefs could be sent to the troops that lived and 
watched above the clouds. As on most mountains 
used for observation purposes the snow feU thickest 
on or near the summit, the garrison had to work 
incessantly to prevent themselves from being buried 
in snowfalls; for no matter how well the direction of the 
prevaihng winds was studied, practically nothing was 
known about the way in which the snow would drift 
and pile up. So the men had to be prepared to dig 
themselves out every morning, and maintain a sort 
of crater to the great snow-field. By November, 1915, 
the Alpine troops on both sides were more busy fighting 
against the terrible powers of Nature in her sombre 
moods than in trying to steal little tactical positions 
from each other. And so a halt was called until the 
spring. 



191 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE MARVELOUS WORK OF THE RED 

CROSS 

vital need of voluntary aid a famous foun- 
dation red cross hospitals in england 

tracing wounded and missing canadian red 

cross work the great hospital at cliveden 

work in belgium — ^american helpers in france 
— Serbia's pitiful plight. 

IN TIMES of peace comparatively little is heard of 
the great voluntary organizations whose business it is 
to keep the machinery always going for dealing with 
the wounded when war breaks out. Best known of 
these is the Red Cross Society, taking its name from 
the familiar symbol — the reversal of the colors of the 
Swiss national flag — denoting everywhere throughout 
the Christian world work for the sick and wounded. 

Working with the Red Cross Society in the war 
was another body, the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, 
more generally known as the St. John's Ambulance 
Brigade. This order claims descent from a famous 
foundation which arose in the earliest days of the 
twelfth century, with the object of giving shelter and 
assistance to pilgrims to the Holy Land, who were at 
that time suffering under the heel of the Turk. 

Its task today is very different. From its home at 
St. John's Gate, in Clerkenwell, it organized ambulance 
192 



WORK OF THE RED CROSS 

brigades which soon became a famihar feature in most 
parts of England. It had, in the days before the 
war, some 30,000 members who had secured their 
certificates in first-aid, who worked under discipHne, 
and many of whom had been given a certain amount 
of training each year in War Office and Admiralty 
hospitals on the understanding that they would offer 
themselves should war break out. 

At the start of the war the authorities appealed to 
the St. John's Ambulance Brigade for volunteers. 
There was an immediate response. The Ambulance 
volunteers enabled the members of the Royal Army 
Medical Corps to be released from home work and to 
go out with the Expeditionary Force. In addition, 
some six hundred and fifty St. John's Ambulance men 
were mobihzed and sent out with the force. The 
services of these St. John's Ambulance workers and of 
other voluntary workers secured by the Order of St. 
John were of unquestioned value. 

It became evident at the beginning of the war that 
these voluntary bodies would have to expand their 
activities to a degree undreamed of before, and would 
further have to raise money on a previously unknown 
scale. A joint War Committee was formed of the 
British Red Cross and the Order of St. John, and the 
task of raising the money was undertaken, at the 
request of Lord Rothschild, the President of the 
Joint Committee, by The London Times. 

The first great task that fell to the Red Cross was 
the sudden improvisation of a fleet of motor-transports. 
Old horse-ambulances were still being used. Their 
slowness, jolting, and inadequacy were responsible for 

w 193 



WORK OF THE RED CROSS 

much needless suffering among the wounded. If it 
were possible, wounded men were taken down from the 
front in the motor-wagons which had brought up 
stores. These motor-wagons were almost springless, 
accentuating every jolt in the road, particularly on 
the paved roads of Northern France. They were trying 
enough for hardy and able-bodied men to travel in, 
but hideous for the wounded. 

Money was asked for motor-ambulances. Within 
three weeks funds were raised to purchase over five 
hundred. Motor manufacturers went to work day and 
night, and by the end of January, 1915, over a thou- 
sand motor-ambulances and other motor-vehicles were 
at work. An army of trained drivers had been enlisted 
to handle them, and over 100,000 patients had been 
carried in them. 

Then the societies established a number of hospitals 
of their own. In France six were opened immediately 
around Boulogne, and three in or near Calais. The 
voluntary hospitals offered by British donors to the 
French and Belgian Governments were inspected and 
supervised. The Red Cross established several hos- 
pitals in England itself. The largest of these was the 
King George's Hospital in Stamford Street, London 

KED CROSS HOSPITALS IN ENGLAND 

The British Red Cross had 2,300 Voluntary Aid 
Detachments, with a membership exceeding 67,000. 
With the aid of these some six hundred auxiliary 
hospitals were equipped, and rest stations were formed 
for attending to the wounded on the way to hospital. 
Convalescent homes were established. One depart- 
194 



WORK OF THE RED CROSS 

ment of the Red Cross which constituted a romance — 
often enough, alas! a very painful romance — ^was for 
tracing the wounded and missing. Its agents traveled 
throughout the battle-stricken regions of Northern 
France, searching everyT\'here for news which could 
relieve the anxiety of those at home. 

TRACING WOUNDED AND MISSING 

Another great department of the Red Cross work 
was the provision of supplies for the hospitals at the 
front. Immense stores were wanted that could not 
possibly be had from the Government, from X-ray 
outfits to tooth-brushes. The societies provided them. 
Garments and comforts for the wounded were sent out 
by the hundred thousand, not only to British armies 
on the Continent, but to wounded in almost every 
center of the war. 

The British Red Cross did not stand alone. Allied 
organizations from the Dominions did their share 
splendidly. The Australasian societies liberally sub- 
scribed to the British funds, and looked well after 
their own men. The Australasians opened a hospital 
at Wimereux, staffed and maintained by Australasians, 
and their contingent was accompanied by an ample 
and adequate medical and nursing organization, which 
aroused great admiration. 

In Canada the work of the Red Cross was taken up 
at the very beginning with immense enthusiasm. 
When the Canadian Contingent arrived in England, 
the ships that bore the troops carried, not merely a 
fuU medical and nursing staff, but every kind of 
medical comfort likel}^ to be required. 

195 



WORK OF THE RED CROSS 

OVERSEAS RED CROSS WORK 

About the same time as the contingent reached Plym- 
outh, Colonel Hodgetts, the Chief Commissioner of the 
Canadian Red Cross, arrived in London and established 
himself in an office in Cockspur Street. This office 
became a center through which a constant stream of gifts 
poured into the United Kingdom and into France. Large 
donations of money were given by the Canadians to the 
British Red Cross. Many motor-ambulances were pur- 
chased. Comforts of all kinds, foodstuffs and supplies, 
were gathered and distributed with the most lavish hand. 
These gifts were by no means confined to the Canadian 
troops. In addition to the large gifts of money, a number 
of motor-ambulances were presented to the British Red 
Cross. A coach was provided for a hospital train which 
Princess Christian was procuring, and a Canadian Ward 
was built in a hospital which the St. John Ambulance 
Society was constructing at the front. The Canadian 
Red Cross came to England to help, and it did so. 
It did great and much-needed work. In addition to 
the establishment at Le Touquet, the Canadian Red 
Cross made itself responsible for the construction, 
maintenance and administration of a great hospital 
at CHveden, Mr. and Mrs. Waldorf Astor's well 
kno\Mi Thames-side estate. Mr. Astor offered the 
Canadians the use of Taplow Lodge, Cliveden, and the 
grounds around it, and undertook sweeping structural 
alterations and additions to make the place suitable. 

THE GREAT HOSPITAL AT CLIVEDEN 

Early in 1915 the Duchess of Connaught's Canadian 
Red Cross Hospital, as the new establishment was 
196 



WORK OF THE RED CROSS 

called, was opened with one hundred and eight beds. 
It was complete in every detail. The main building 
was a transformed tennis-court, which made as cheerful 
looking a hospital as could be devised. Its white walls, 
and its roof of green painted glass, its floors covered 
with green linoleum, and its abundant flowers, com- 
bined to produce a very pleasant effect. The lofty 
roof and the fresh country air largely robbed the place 
of the familiar hospital atmosphere of iodoform and 
antiseptics. The operating theater was one that the 
finest London hospitals might well have envied on 
account of its size, light, and perfect aseptic conditions. 
The accommodation was surprisingly excellent when 
it is remembered that it was created in a short 
time, out of what had been an adjunct to a big 
country house. 

BELGIANS AT BEACHBOROUGH PARK 

Beachborough Park opened in October, 1914, with 
close on fifty beds. Its first consignment of patients 
was over fifty Belgians fresh from the front, with 
wounds that had received little or nothing beyond 
first-aid. Some of the men had lain four or five days 
in the field before being brought in. The staff toiled 
over them for thirty-six hours, two nights and a day, 
without rest. When the Canadian troops reached 
the front, Beachborough Park became, as it con- 
tinued from then on, a reflection of the great battles 
in which the Dominion troops took part. The estab- 
lishment was so successful that after a few months 
it was determined to enlarge it, and wards were built 
in the grounds, enlarging the accommodation to 

197 



WORK OF THE RED CROSS 

about one hundred and fifty patients. It would 
be impossible to detail all the places that were opened 
in England for the accommodation of the wounded. 
The Royal Army Medical Department took over 
numerous old buildings, schools, factories and the 
like, and in addition built temporary hospitals in parks 
and gardens on a wholesale scale. It absorbed race- 
tracks and transformed lunatic asylums; voluntary 
hospitals aU over the country opened their doors to 
the wounded, the London Hospital alone placing three 
hundred beds at the disposal of the authorities. A 
number of private houses and nursing homes, par- 
ticularly in London, were turned into special hospitals 
for doctors. Among the best known of these were 
the hospital at 27, Grosvenor Square, and Queen 
Alexandra's Hospital for officers at Highgate. Special 
sections of the community provided hospitals. The 
American community established and maintained a 
fine hospital at Paignton, Devon, in one of the most 
beautiful country houses of Southern England. 

The claims of the Belgian people made a special 
appeal to the British nation, and numerous parties of 
surgeons and nurses went out more or less indepen- 
dently to help the wounded during the early fighting. 
The best known of these was Dr. Hector Munro, and 
his experiences may be taken as a notable example of 
others. 

Dr. Munro, at the beginning of the war, abandoned 
for a time his practice in London and volunteered for 
service in Belgium. His first experiences showed him 
the great need of motor-ambulances for the Belgian 
Army, and returning to London on September 22, 1914, 
198 



WORK OF THE RED CROSS 

he issued an appeal which was to have widespread 
results. 

He stated that he proposed to raise a small ambu- 
lance corps, with two surgeons, a staff of twenty 
helpers, and four cars. ''I have just returned from 
Belgium, where I visited Ostend, Bruges, Ghent, and 
Antwerp, to inquire as to the need for Red Cross work 
there. The difficulty is to get the wounded from ten 
to thirty miles around Ghent into the town. There 
are admirable hospitals around Ghent. One large 
hotel has been converted by the Belgian Red Cross 
into Hopital Militaire No. 2, and is splendidly manned 
with surgeons, doctors, and nurses. But it is impossible 
to get the wounded in there quickly enough. There 
are about 2,000 Uhlans wandering in the district, and 
there are occasional small skirmishes, ending in one or 
two men being killed and a dozen or so wounded. 
The wounded crawl away into cottages, or lie about 
in the open fields, where they remain unattended. 
Last Sunday there were 3,000 wounded to take into 
the toT\Ti of Antwerp." 

His party was quickly organized. Miss May 
Sinclair, the well-known novelist, acted as his secre- 
tary. Lady Dorothie Feilding, daughter of Lord 
Denbigh, acted as his chief of staff, and a group of 
men and women volunteers were enlisted. Unlike 
most doctors. Dr. Munro did not seek for professional 
nurses, but enlisted the aid of a number of eager 
women who had received some training in first-aid 
and were keen to serve. 

The ambulance corps was first stationed at Ghent, 
and after a few days of waiting it quickly found itself 

199 



WORK OF THE RED CROSS 

in the thick of service. It soon won a high reputation 
for the daring of its members in penetrating into the 
firing-line, bringing their light cars up as near to the 
front as possible, and rescuing men from where danger 
was greatest. Their conduct during the great battle 
of the sea-coast in October, 1914, attracted wide 
notice. 

The story of the work of the Munro Ambulance at 
Dixmude attracted widespread attention and much 
public support, and by December the volunteer corps 
had thirteen cars. It was engaged all along the line 
of the Belgian retreat. Eventually it settled down at 
Furnes, making its headquarters there, and its work 
extending along the line of thirty miles from Nieuport 
to Ypres. One of the members of the corps was 
wounded in the leg at Nieuport, and received the 
Legion of Honor. Another was poisoned from the 
fumes of a shell that burst near to him, and was ill 
for some weeks. 

Soup-kitchens were established for feeding starving 
and exhausted men, and warm woolen underclothes 
and gloves were supplied for Belgian troops in the 
trenches. Mr. Ramsay Macdonald, M.P., worked 
for a time with the party. 

AMERICAN HELPERS IN FRANCE 

Early in the war it became evident that the French 
Army medical authorities would be greatly aided by 
some outside help. In France, where almost every 
able-bodied man was called to the front, it was not 
possible to draw to the same extent on volunteers 
from the country itself, as could be done in England. 
200 




hi ^ 



a; c 



WORK OF THE RED CROSS 

Consequently, volunteers were obtained from England 
and America, and a number of ambulance units got to 
work. One of the most notable of these was the Anglo- 
American Volunteer Motor-Ambulance Corps, organ- 
ized by Mr. Richard Norton and placed under the 
command of Colonel Barry. It was formally attached 
to one of the northern divisions of the French Army, 
and it did services which, in the opinion of the French 
authorities themselves, it would be difficult to over- 
estimate. 

The majority of the workers in this convoy were well- 
to-do young Americans, who could drive, and who in 
some cases provided their own cars. They largely 
maintained themselves. This volunteer corps was 
representative of the great American philanthropic 
activity in aiding the sick, feeding the hungry, and 
checking disease all along the different fronts. 

Nowhere was the need of Red Cross work greater 
than in Serbia. This country, poor and devastated by 
previous wars, found itself, when it had driven the 
Austrian armies out of its borders, in a most pitiable 
state. There were thousands of sick and thousands of 
wounded waiting attention. Great numbers of Aus- 
trian prisoners had been taken, an epidemic of typhus 
started among them, and among the refugees, and 
spread over the country with amazing virulence. 

Serbia's pitiable plight 

There were no Serbian trained nurses, although a 
certain number of Serbian ladies had begun to learn 
the elements of training, and there were fevv doctors 
left. Famine threatened the country. The ha'penny 

201 



WORK OF THE RED CROSS 

roll in some parts fetched a shilling. British doctors 
who had come to the country to help did their utmost. 
They were swallowed up in the magnitude of the task 
before them. 

The sick died all over the country, in many cases 
with none to attend them. Wounded men, carried for 
days on bullock-wagons from the front — journeys 
every moment of which must have been exquisite 
agony — found no doctors to attend to them when they 
arrived at their stations. The country seemed to 
reach the very depth of possible misery. 

When the cry of Serbia went out to the world, expedi- 
tions were quickly organized in Britain. The Serbian 
Relief Fund made renewed efforts, and was able to 
initiate and support many activities. Hospital parties 
were formed. Mrs. St. Clair Stobart, who had already 
done great work in Belgium and in Northern France, 
took a large party of doctors and trained nurses to 
Krajeuvitch. American doctors and philanthropists 
helped also. 

The Red Cross parties that arrived at the front paid 
heavy toll among their members in deaths from 
typhus and typhoid as the price of their aid. But the 
tjT^hus was stamped out and the worst was overcome. 



202 



CHAPTER XVII 
PATRIOTIC CANADA 

THE PATRIOTISM OF CANADA A REMARKABLE 

RESPONSE TO THE CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS CAN- 
ADA'S GENEROUS CONTRIBUTION WHAT CANA- 
DIANS HAVE ACCOMPLISHED. 

VALCARTIER ! It was significant and fitting, though 
indeed it was but the accident of geographical position, 
that the first great training camp of Canadian soldiers 
for this war should be in Old Quebec, where France 
and England settled the fate of half a continent a 
hundred and fifty years ago. Men from Alaska, 4000 
miles away, from British Columbia, 3000 miles away, 
from the Great West and Far North — native-born 
Canadians, Scots, Irish, English, naturalized Ameri- 
cans — gathered in French Canada to make ready for the 
prodigious enterprise to which they were to consecrate 
their lives and all that they were. In the province 
where a conquered people secured such rights and 
freedom that they never sought to free themselves from 
British dominion; where twice they fought back the 
American invader from British territory; there the 
first contingent of eager Canadians met to complete 
their equipment and make ready for an infinitely more 
dramatic and crucial business than the most heated 
imagination could conceive. 

-203 



PATRIOTIC CANADA 



THE PATRIOTISM OF CANADA 

It was not love of adventure which roused the 
Canadians. They have been first among Imperialists 
from the beginning of their career as a confederation, 
but they have never been Jingo Imperialists. A 
democratic people has no mind for the tinkling cymbals 
of aggression; but there had grown into their sensitive 
and alert minds the deep conviction that, as Sir Wilfrid 
Laurier said on an historic occasion, if we did not come 
closer together we must drift further apart. 

The declaration of war between Britain and Germany 
produced a greater vibration in the Dominion than in 
England. The standard of education among the 
lowest people in Canada is higher; individual respon- 
sibility is greater. There is no dependence of class 
upon class, and, therefore, every man knows he must 
hustle for himself, so that the war became a personal 
thing to every Canadian from the start. 

A REMARKABLE RESPONSE TO THE CALL FOR 
VOLUNTEERS 

What happened? Just as wonderful things as the 
rashest, most daring minds could conceive. Young 
men filled the streets leading to the recruiting offices. 
They were not rough-riders, cow-boys and hunters 
alone — far from it; from college, from university, from 
lawyers' offices, from the merchants' and the bankers' 
counters, from the railway and the mine, from the 
schoolhouse and the farmyard, from the doctors' offices, 
the backwoods and the river they came offering them- 
selves for the "Old Flag," as they called it. The 
Government aimed at what seemed at first a large 

204 



PATRIOTIC CANADA 



army; that is, 30,000 men. By the time, however, 
that Princess Patricia's Light Infantry retired from 
their place of renown at Ypres with 150 men, their 
colors and a glory which time cannot dim, the determi- 
nation came to provide an army of 150,000 men. 
But Canadians have always responded to their 
Country's call, and always will. Canadian patriotism 
guarantees that there will be no necessity for con- 
scription. Canadians wiU come, as many as are 
needed, as~many as can be equipped, as many in 
proportion as Great Britain can draw from these 
islands, proud to seal the bond of union in their 
blood. 

Canada's first enthusiasm was not the mere thrill of 
adventure, was not a Hp-service to history and the 
long ties of time, but the devotion of a nation, not 
to the people of the Mother Land, but that which the 
Mother Land had been, for what it had stood, and for 
a flag representing tradition of liberty and freedom 
which have_been the foundation of their own health 
and wealth and progress. 

Canada's generous contribution 

From August until December of 1914 what a 
multitude of gifts to the Mother Land poured in from 
Canada! There were bags of flour by the million, 
thousands of tons of cheese, hundreds of thousands of 
bushels of potatoes, horses, all kinds of grain, fruit and 
vegetables, and gifts of money. Pohtical differences 
were composed. Sir WiKrid Laurier, the French- 
Canadian ex-Prime Minister, took to the platform 
to encourage recruiting, to explain the causes of the 

205 



PATRIOTIC CANADA 



war, to guide his fellow-countrymen into the paths 
of duty, while his political foe, Prime Minister 
Borden, was in England in conference with its Gov- 
ernment. A burning faith and enthusiasm inspired 
the Canadian people. 

So wonderful was the outburst it might have seemed 
that the glow, the determination, could not last. 
It not only lasted, it grew greater as the months went 
by. In the dark days of August, 1914, when Great 
Britain suddenly found herself confronted with her 
armed and well-prepared antagonist, the silver lining 
to the black clouds that hung over the Dominion 
was the splendid consistency of the people. Every- 
one in Great Britain who knew anything of Greater 
Britain knew that the Dominions would be loyal and 
true. But even the seers who had visions, and the 
dreamers of dreams, had failed to imagine anything 
so great as what actually took place. From August 4th 
it was no longer a case of the people of Greater Britain 
helping Great Britain in her war. It was the people 
of Greater Britain taking their share in their own 
war, making common purpose and finding common 
strength in their unity. 

Valcartier was a marvel of its kind, a camp built 
up from nothing in a very few weeks, with permanent 
shower baths, electric Hght, a good water supply 
throughout the lines, and conveniences lacking in 
many camps that have been established for years. 
The Dominion Government resolved that the Canadian 
troops were to be completely equipped in a way sur- 
passed by no other army in the world. No money 
was to be spared. Accordingly, the personal equip- 
206 



PATRIOTIC CANADA 



ment of the men was brought to a point of excellence 
that excited general admiration on their arrival in 
Europe. 

WHAT CANADIANS HAVE ACCOMPLISHED ' 

From Valcartier the Canadian troops were trans- 
ferred to SaUsbury Plains, in England, for an exceed- 
ingly thorough course of training. Then came inspec- 
tion by the King and Lord Kitchener; then suddenly 
they were marched away, not knowing where they 
were going, and then almost as suddenly — Ypres, 
Neuve Chapelle, the second battle of Ypres, Festubert, 
Givenchy, Langemark, and the mihtary capacity of the 
Canadians was estabUshed at once and for evermore! 

The world came to know that a Canadian division 
had saved the situation at Ypres; had heard of an 
initiative, a resolution and an almost fanatical courage 
which was as great as any veteran troops the oldest 
mihtary nation had ever shown. The world heard 
with what splendid fury lost guns were recovered in 
the face of terrific fire; how points were held under 
punishment of German artillery such as no troops 
had ever been obHged to face before; what the Princess 
Patricia's Light Infantry did at St. Eloi. All this was 
done by other Canadian troops as a matter of course, 
but as a matter of honor also. When Lieutenant Camp- 
bell and Private Vincent, with a httle company, fought 
in a German trench until only the two were left, and 
Campbell fought his machine-gun resting on Vincent's 
back until he could fight no longer, and crawled away 
in a dying condition, while Vincent dragged the gun 
to safety, no surprise was felt, because the quaHty of 

207 



PATRIOTIC CANADA 



the Canadian had become an asset of the whole Empire. 
The quahty of the Austrahan and the New Zealander 
is no less — not by the tiniest fraction; but the Cana- 
dians were the first to get their chance to receive the 
baptism of fire; were the first to prove that the men 
of the oversea Dominions have the root of the matter 
in them, and are good enough to fight with the 
best men that are fighting anywhere. Said one of 
the Second Contingent in London to one of the first 
who had come back from the field of battle: ''We've 
had a hell of a time living down your reputation in 
England!" The reply was: ''You'll have a hell of a 
time Hving up to it in France!" 

That sense of humor is part of the Canadian equip- 
ment; it belongs to his elemental shrewdness, com- 
radeship and common sense, and that is why he gets 
along with the British soldier so well. They respect 
each other; they swear at each other now and then, 
but they swear hy each other all the time. They 
recognize that they have drawn life and character 
from the same spring. The Canadians are a hardy 
race — sober, industrious, tenacious. They have gripped 
this problem with both hands; they will stay. 

The admiration of^the British Army for the Canadian 
troops has frequently been remarked during the war. 
It is no surface thing — it is deep and sincere, and no 
words can give adequate expression to the splendid, 
magnificent work they have been doing. > 

PREMIER BORDEn's PATRIOTIC SPEECH 

Premier Borden"of Canada well expressed the spirit 
of the Dominion in a notable speech dehvered at the 

208 



PATRIOTIC CANADA 



Canada Club of London in August, 1915. There was 
a large and distinguished gathering, including the 
High Commissioners of sister Dominions. The toast 
to the Premier was received with great enthusiasm, 
and cheers were given for Sir Robert and also Lady 
Borden. 

Replying, the Premier said he was grateful for the 
reception and for the way they received the name of 
Lady Borden. She would have crossed the Atlantic 
and been present if she had not been occupied in duties 
at home which she thought more useful to the work of 
the Red Cross and other associations. 

Canada's high aim 

The work done by the Canada Club, as well as that 
of other Canadians not members of the club, through- 
out the British Isles in providing comforts for the m.en 
in the field, and in other ways, was one for which the 
Premier said he was profoundly grateful, and was in- 
tensely appreciated by the people themselves in Can- 
ada, who in that regard had done not a little since the 
outbreak of the war. The constant aim and purpose 
of the Canadian Government had been to co-operate 
with the Government of the United Kingdom and 
overseas Dominions in an endeavor to bring the war 
to an honorable and triumphant conclusion. 

In that purpose the work of Sir George Perley in 
London had been of the highest possible advantage to 
the Dominion. The object of Canada at the commence- 
ment of the war, said the Premier, was, of course, to 
throw as great a force as possible into the field at the 
earliest possible moment, and there they were unpre- 

14 209 



PATRIOTIC CANADA 



pared for war even to a greater degree than the British 
Isles themselves. 

A CAUSE FOR PRIDE 

He confessed some pride in the fact that within six 
weeks after the commencement of hostilities they were 
able to place at Valcartier 33,000 of the best that Can- 
ada could produce, fully armed and equipped. Many 
of these had since gone to the front, and he believed 
had done their duty to the fullest possible extent. 
There were present in the Premier's audience distin- 
tinguished representatives from Australia, South Africa 
and New Zealand, and he asked that he might be per- 
mitted to extend, as had aheady been extended, this 
Government's congratulations and the congratulations 
of Canada on what their soldiers, in all their triumphs, 
had accomplished. Later in the war, he said, troops 
from those Dominions would fight side by side on the 
continent of Europe with British troops and troops 
from Canada. He knew the men from Canada wel- 
comed the comradeship of the men from those three 
Dominions. 

THE EAGER CANADIANS 

The Premier proceeded to allude to the numbers 
despatched from Canada. Dwelling on the eagerness 
of the men to go to the front, he said that when he was 
in Boulogne, after a certain number of reinforcements 
had been sent from Shorncliffe, there were found 
dozens of men who had not been included, but who had 
stolen away to get to Boulogne. He might also allude 
to an incident which occurred in western Canada, 
210 



PATRIOTIC CANADA 



when some men, not included in a detachment for Val- 
cartier, forcibly took possession of a railway car and 
were not discovered until well on the journey. 

The Premier dwelt on his trip to the front, also the 
hospitals, remarking that it was satisfactory to find in 
those institutions that the arrangements were all that 
could be desired. He had met a mian Vv^ho threw aside 
all business activities, leaving his affairs to take care of 
themselves, and enlisted at the opening of the war. He 
passed through the second battle of Ypres untouched, 
but was severely wounded at Festubert, where he re- 
ceived four bullets in his right arm, from which he had 
not yet recovered, four in his left shoulder and three in 
his left leg. The Premier was astonished to see he had 
recovered to the degree he had. 

''When I met him I asked him," continued Premier 
Borden, ''whether the surgeon had succeeded in ex- 
tracting all the bullets at one operation? He replied: 
'Well, he missed a few the first time.' Then he went 
on to tell me how the second operation became neces- 
sary. The spirit of the wounded was splendid." 

PROOF OF IMPERIAL UNITY 

Continuing, the Premier remarked he was persuaded 
of the unity of the^Empire by what he had seen dur- 
ing the past twelve months and in what he thought the 
should see in the future it would be more strikingly 
manifest than ever before. He did not think anyone 
could gainsay that, and, considering the lack of organi- 
zation in the ties which bound the Empire together, 
and the remarkable powers of self-government with 
which all the overseas nations of the Empire had been 

211 



PATRIOTIC CANADA 



entrusted, and which they held as alright and not as 
grace, he did feel that, in the co-operation between the 
overseas Dominions and the Government, these Islands 
had been^successful beyond what they could have anti- 
cipated, and he was sure that condition would con- 
tinue to the end. 

A CLOSER ORGANIZATION 

There might come a time in the future, he predicted, 
when they would have to consider matters of better 
organization between these Islands and the Dominions. 
To those who thought such a task was impossible he 
would commend the example of the men who founded 
the Dominion of Canada, because if ever a task seemed 
impossible that which they undertook must have so 
seemed, yet it has been a remarkable success. 

His hearers would agree with him, he was confident, 
that the- Canadian national spirit was asserted, and in 
the past had asserted itself in a manner which would 
satisfy all. Those difficulties were overcome at the in- 
ception of the Dominion, and surely difficulties which 
seemed to stand in the way of better organization of 
the affairs of the British Empire can be overcome by the 
wise counsel and co-operation of the statesmen of these 
Islands and Dominions. 

The Premier said he held the profound conviction, 
that regiment for regiment and man for man the allied 
forces could more than hold their own with the most 
efficient troops of the enemy. In this war, in which all 
the uses of applied science were being turned to destruc- 
tion, the first duty of this Empire was to place them- 
selves on an equaoooting. 

212 



PATRIOTIC CANADA 



A COURAGEOUS COUNTRY 

In this most important regard, Premier Borden as- 
serted, Britons were taking the necessary steps. If 
they were incHned to be discouraged by the fall of some 
fortress, he hoped they would remember the great 
work accomplished for them by the navy in securing 
the pathways of the seas. ''If I should bring today 
a message from the people of Canada it would be that 
not for one single moment will they be discouraged by 
any reverse; not for one single moment will they relax 
their determination or efforts to bring this war to a 
triumphant and honorable conclusion, which is our 
due." 

After that he beheved the Empire would march 
forward to a nobler and greater future. He ventured 
to believe the work of the Empire was not yet done, 
but that the future opened up an opportunity for use- 
fulness and influence which perhaps none now could 
see. 



213 



CHAPTER XVIII 

A CRIME AGAINST CIVILIZATION: 
THE TRAGIC DESTRUCTION OF 
THE LUSITANIA 

AN UNPRECEDENTED CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY — • 
THE LUSITANIA: BUILT FOR SAFETY GERMANY'S 

announced intention to sink the vessel 

liner's speed increased as danger NEARED 

submarine's periscope dips under surface — 

passengers overcome by poisonous fumes 

boat capsizes with women and children 

hundreds jump into the sea the lusitania 

goes to her doom interview with captain 

TURNER. 

NO THINKING man — whether he beheves or disbe- 
lieves in war — expects to have war without the horrors 
and atrocities which accompany it. That ''war is 
hell" is as true now as when General Sherman so 
pronounced it. It seems, indeed, to be truer today. 
And yet we have always thought — perhaps because 
we hoped — that there was a limit at which even war, 
with all its lust of blood, with all its passion of hatred, 
with all its devilish zest for efficiency in the destruction 
of human life, would stop. 

Now we know that there is no hmit at which the 
makers of war, in their frenzy to pile horror on horror, 
and atrocity on atrocity, will stop. We have seen 
a nation despoiled and raped because it resisted an 

214 



CRIME AGAINST CIVILIZATION 

invader, and we said that was war. But now out of 
the sun-lit waves has come a venomous instrument 
of destruction, and without warning, without respite 
for escape, has sent headlong to the bottom of the 
everlasting sea more than a thousand unarmed, unre- 
sisting, peace-bent men, women and children — even 
babes in arms. So the Lusitania was sunk. It may 
be war, but it is something incalculably more sobering 
than merely that. It is the difference between assas- 
sination and massacre. It is war's supreme crime 
against civiHzation. 

AN UNPRECEDENTED CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY 

The horror of the deadly assault on the Lusitania 
does not lessen as the first shock of the disaster recedes 
into the past. The world is aghast. It had not taken 
the German threat at full value; it did not believe 
that any civilized nation would be so wanton in its 
lust and passion of war as to count a thousand non- 
combatant lives a mere unfortunate incidental of the 
carnage. 

Nothing that can be said in mitigation of the destruc- 
tion of the Lusitania can alter the fact that an outrage 
unknown heretofore in the warfare of civilized nations 
has been committed. Regardless of the technicaUties 
which may be offered as a defense in international 
law, there are rights which must be asserted, must be 
defended and maintained. If international law can be 
torn to shreds and converted into scrap paper to serve 
the necessities of war, its obstructive letter can be 
disregarded when it is necessary to serve the rights of 
humanity. 

215 



CRIME AGAINST CIVILIZATION 

THE lusitania: built for ''safety" 

The irony of the situation Hes in the fact that from 
the ghastly experience of great marine disasters the 
Lusitania was evolved as a vessel that was ''safe." 
No such calamity as the attack of a torpedo was fore- 
seen by the builders of the giant ship, and yet, even 
after the outbreak of the European war, and when 
upon the eve of her last voyage the warning came 
that an attempt would be made to torpedo the Lusi- 
tania, her owners confidently assured the world that 
the ship v/as safe because her great speed would enable 
her to outstrip any submarine ever built. 

Limitation of language makes adequate word descrip- 
tion of this mammoth Cunarder impossible. The 
following figures show its immense dimensions : Length, 
790 feet; breadth, 88 feet; depth, to boat deck, 80 feet; 
draught, fully loaded, 37 feet, 6 inches; displacement on 
load line, 45,000 tons; height to top of funnels, 155 
feet; height to mastheads, 216 feet. The hull below 
draught line was divided into 175 water-tight compart- 
ments, which made it — so the owners claimed — ■ 
"unsinkable." With complete safety device equip- 
ment, including wireless telegraph, Mundy-Gray 
improved method of submarine signaling, and with 
officers and crew all trained and reliable men, the 
Lusitania was acclaimed as being unexcelled from a 
standpoint of safety, as in all other respects. 

Size, however, was its least remarkable feature. 
The ship was propelled by four screws rotated by 
turbine engines of 68,000 horse-power, capable of 
developing a sea speed of more than twenty-five knots 
per hour regardless of weather conditions; and of 
216 



orq'S. W 



o -^ 



O B 






B H 




CRIME AGAINST CIVILIZATION 

maintaining without driving a schedule with the 
regularity of a railroad train, and thus establishing 
its right to the title of ''the fastest ocean greyhound." 

Germany's announced intention to sink the 

VESSEL 

On Saturday May 1, 1915, the day on which the 
Cunard liner Lusitania, carrying 2,000 passengers and 
crew, sailed from New York for Liverpool, the following 
advertisement, over the name of the Imperial German 
Embassy, was published in the leading newspapers of 
the United States: 

NOTICE! 

TRAVELERS intending to embark on the 
Atlantic voyage are reminded that a state of 
war exists between Germany and her allies 
and Great Britain and her allies; that the 
zone of war includes the waters adjacent to 
the British Isles; that, in accordance with 
formal notice given by the Imperial German 
Government, vessels flying the flag of Great 
Britain, or of any of her allies, are liable to 
destruction in those waters and that travelers 
sailing in the war zone on ships of Great Britain 
or her allies do so at their own risk. 

IMPERIAL GERMAN EMBASSY. 
Washington, D. C, April 22, 1915. 

The advertisement was commented upon by the 
passengers of the Lusitania, but it did not cause any 
of them to cancel their bookings. No one took the 

217 



CRIME AGAINST CIVILIZATION 

matter seriously. It was not conceivable that even 
the German military lords could seriously plot so 
dastardly an attack on non-combatants. 

When the attention of Captain W. T. Turner, 
commander of the Lusitania, was called to the warning, 
he laughed and said: "It doesn't seem as if they had 
scared many people from going on the ship by the 
looks of the passenger list." 

Agents of the Cunard Line said there was no truth in 
reports that several prominent passengers had received 
anonymous telegrams warning them not to sail on 
the Lusitania. Charles T. Bowring, president of the 
St. George's Society, who was a passenger, said that 
it was a silly performance for the German Embassy 
to do. 

Charles Klein, the American playwright, said he was 
going to devote his time on the voyage to thinking of 
his new play, "Potash and Perlmutter in Society," 
and would not have time to worry about trifles. 

Alfred G. Vanderbilt was one of the last to go on 
board. 

Elbert Hubbard, publisher of the Pliilistine, who 
sailed with his wife, said he beUeved the German 
Emperor had ordered the advertisement to be placed 
in the newspapers, and added jokingly that if he was 
on board the liner when she was torpedoed, he would 
be able to do the Kaiser justice in the Philistine. 

The early days of the voyage were unmarked by 
incidents other than those which have interested ocean 
passengers on countless previous trips, and little 
apprehension was felt by those on the Lusitania of the 
fate which lay ahead of the vessel. 
218 



CRIME AGAINST CIVILIZATION 

The ship was proceeding at a moderate speed, 
on Friday, May 7, when she passed Fastnet Light, off 
Cape Clear, the extreme southwesterly point of Ireland 
that is first sighted by east-bound liners. Captain 
Turner was on the bridge, with his staff captain and 
other officers, maintaining a close lookout. Fastnet 
left behind, the Lusitania's course was brought closer 
to shore, probably within twelve miles of the rock- 
bound coast. 

liner's speed increased as danger neared 

Her speed was also increased to twenty knots or 
more, according to the more observant passengers, 
and some declare that she worked a sort of zigzag 
course, plainly ready to shift her helm whenever danger 
should appear. Captain Turner, it is known, was 
watching closely for any evidence of submarines. 

One of the passengers. Dr. Daniel Moore, of Yankton, 
S. D., declared that before he went downstairs to 
luncheon shortly after one o'clock he and others with 
him noticed, through a pair of marine glasses, a curious 
object in the sea, possibly two miles or more away. 
What it was he could not determine, but he jokingly 
referred to it later at luncheon as a submarine. 

While the first cabin passengers were chatting over 
their coffee cups they felt the ship give a great leap 
forward. Full speed ahead had suddenly been signaled 
from the bridge. This was a few minutes after two 
o'clock, and just about the time that Ellison Myers, 
of Stratford, Ontario, a boy on his way to join the 
British Navy, noticed the periscope of a submarine 
about a mile away to starboard. Myers and his 

219 



CRIME AGAINST CIVILIZATION 

companions saw Captain Turner hurriedly give orders 
to the helmsman and ring for full speed to the engine 
room. 

The Lusitania began to swerve to starboard, heading 
for the submarine, but before she could really answer 
her helm a torpedo was flashing through the water 
toward her at express speed. Myers and his compan- 
ions, like many others of the passengers, saw the white 
wake of the torpedo and its metal casing gleaming in 
the bright sunlight. The weather was ideal, light 
winds and a clear sky maldng the surface of the ocean as 
calm and smooth as could be wished by any traveler. 

submarine's periscope dips under surface 

The torpedo came on, aimed apparently at the bow 
of the ship, but nicely calculated to hit her amidships. 
Before its wake was seen the periscope of the submarine 
had vanished beneath the surface. 

In far less time than it takes to tell, the torpedo had 
crashed into the Lusitania's starboard side, just abaft 
the first funnel, and exploded with a dull boom in the 
forward stoke-hole. 

Captain Turner at once ordered the helm put over 
and the prow of the ship headed for land, in the hope 
that she might strike shallow water while still under 
way. The boats were ordered out, and the signals 
calling the boat crews to their stations were flashed 
everywhere through the vessel. 

Several of the life-boats were already swung out, 
according to some survivors, there having been a life- 
saving drill earlier in the day before the ship spoke 
Fastnet Light. 
220 



CRIME AGAINST CIVILIZATION 

Down in the dining saloon the passengers felt the 
ship reel from the shock of the explosion and many were 
hurled from their chairs. Before they could recover 
themselves, another explosion occurred. There is a 
difference of opinion as to the number of torpedoes 
fired. Some say there were two; others say only one 
torpedo struck the vessel, and that the second ex- 
plosion was internal. 

PASSENGERS OVERCOME BY POISONOUS FUMES 

In any event, the passengers now realized their 
danger. The ship, torn almost apart, was filled with 
fumes and smoke, the decks were covered with debris 
that fell from the sky, and the great Lusitania began 
to list quickly to starboard. Before the passengers 
below decks could make their way above, the decks 
were beginning to slant ominously, and the air was 
filled with the cries of terrified men and women, some 
of them aheady injured by being hurled against the 
sides of the saloons. Many passengers were stricken 
unconscious by the smoke and fumes from the exploding 
torpedoes. 

The stewards and stewardesses, recognizing the too 
evident signs of a sinking ship, rushed about urging 
and helping the passengers to put on life-belts, of which 
more than 3,000 were aboard. 

On the boat deck attempts were being made to 
lower the life-boats, but several causes combined to 
impede the efforts of the crew in this direction. The 
port side of the vessel was already so far up that the 
boats on that side were quite useless, and as the star- 
board boats were lowered the plunging vessel — she was 

221 



CRIME AGAINST CIVILIZATION 

stiU under headway, for all efforts to reverse the engines 
proved useless — swung back and forth, and when they 
struck the water were dragged along through the sea, 
making it almost impossible to get them away. 

BOAT CAPSIZES WITH WOMEN AND CHILDREN 

The first life-boat that struck the water capsized 
with some sixty women and children aboard her, and 
all of these must have been drowned almost instantly. 
Ten more boats were lowered, the desperate expedient 
of cutting away the ropes being resorted to to prevent 
them from being dragged along by the now halting 
steamer. 

The great ship was sinking by the bow, foot by foot, 
and in ten minutes after the first explosion she was 
already preparing to founder. Her stern rose high 
in the air, so that those in the boats that got away 
could see the whirring propellers, and even the boat 
deck was awash. 

Captain Turner urged the men to be calm, to take 
care of the women and children, and megaphoned the 
passengers to seize life-belts, chairs — anything they 
could lay hands on to save themselves from drowning. 
There was never any question in the captain's mind 
that the ship was about to sink, and if, as reported, 
some of the stewards ran about advising the passengers 
not to take to the boats, that there was no danger of 
the vessel going down till she reached shore, it was done 
without his orders. But many of the survivors have 
denied this, and declared that all the crew, officers, 
stewards and sailors, even the stokers, who dashed up 
from their flaming quarters below, showed the utmost 

222 



CRIME AGAINST CIVILIZATION 

bravery and calmness in the face of the disaster, and 
sought in every way to aid the panic-stricken passen- 
gers to get off the ship. 

HUNDREDS JUMP INTO THE SEA 

When it was seen that most of the boats would be 
useless, hundreds of passengers donned Hfe-belts and 
jumped into the sea. Others seized deck chairs, 
tubs, kegs, anything available, and hurled themselves 
into the water, clinging to these articles. 

The first-cabin passengers fared worst, for the second 
and third-cabin travelers had long before finished their 
midday meal and were on deck when the torpedo 
struck. But the first-cabin people on the D deck and 
in the balcony, at luncheon, were at a terrible disad- 
vantage, and those who had already finished were in 
their staterooms resting or cleaning up preparatory 
to the after luncheon day. 

The confusion on the stairways became terrible, and 
the great number of little children, more than 150 
of them under two years, a great many of them infants 
in arms, made the plight of the women still more 
desperate. 

LUSITANIA GOES TO HER DOOM 

After the life-boats had cut adrift it was plain that 
a few seconds would see the end of the great ship. 
With a great shiver she bent her bow down below the 
surface, and then her stern uprose, and with a horrible 
sough the liner that had been the pride of the Cunard 
Line, plunged down in sixty fathoms of water. In 
the last few seconds the hundreds of women and men, 

223 



CRIME AGAINST CIVILIZATION 

a great many of them carrying children in their arms, 
leaped overboard, but hundreds of others, delaying 
the' jump too long, were carried down in the suction 
that left a huge whirlpool swirling about the spot where 
the last of the vessel was seen. 

Among these were Elbert Hubbard and his wife, 
Charles Frohman, who was crippled with rheumatism 
and unable to move quickly; Justus Miles Forman, i 
Charles Klein, Alfred G. Vanderbilt and many others 
of the best-known Americans and Englishmen aboard. 

Captain Turner stayed on the bridge as the ship 
went down, but before 'the last plunge he bade his 
staff officer and the helmsman, who were still with him, 
to save themselves. The helmsman leaped into the 
sea and was saved, but the staff officer would not 
desert his superior, and went down with the ship. He 
did not come to the surface again. 

Captain Turner, however, a strong swimmer, rose 
after the eddying whirlpool had calmed down, and, 
seizing a couple of deck chairs, kept himself afloat 
for three hours. The master-at-arms of the Lusitania, 
named Williams, who was looking for survivors in a 
boat after he had been picked up, saw the flash of the 
captain's gold-braided uniform, and rescued him, more 
dead than alive. 

INTERVIEW WITH CAPTAIN TURNER 

Despite the doubt as to whether two torpedoes 
exploded, or whether the first detonation caused the 
big liner's boilers to let go, Captain Turner stated that 
there was no doubt that at least two torpedoes reached 
the ship. 
224 



CRIME AGAINST CIVILIZATION 

"I am not certain whether the two explosions — and 
there were two — resulted from torpedoes, or whether 
one was a boiler explosion. I am sure, however, that 
I saw the first torpedo strike the vessel on her starboard 
side. I also saw a second torpedo apparently headed 
straight for the steamship's hull, directly below the 
suite occupied by Alfred G. Vanderbilt." 

When asked if the second explosion had been caused 
by the blowing up of ammunition stored in the liner's 
hull. Captain Turner said: 

''No; if ammunition had exploded that would 
probably have torn the ship apart and the loss of life 
would have been much heavier than it was." 

Captain Turner declared that, from the bridge, he 
saw the torpedo streaking toward the Lusitania and 
tried to change the ship's course to avoid the missile, 
but was unable to do so in time. The only thing left 
for him to do was to rush the liner ashore and beach 
her, and she was headed for the Irish coast when she 
foundered. 

According to Captain Turner, the German submarine 
did not flee at once after torpedoing the liner. 

"While I was swimming about after the ship had 
disappeared I saw the periscope of the submarine rise 
amidst the debris," said he. "Instead of offering any 
help the submarine immediately submerged herself and 
I saw nothing more of her. I did everything possible 
for my passengers. That was all I could do." 



»5 225 



CHAPTER XIX 

A CANADIAN'S ACCOUNT OF THE 
LUSITANIA HORROR 

PERCY ROGERS, OF CANADIAN NATIONAL EXHIBI- 
TION, TELLS GRAPHIC STORY PASSENGERS WERE 

AGHAST OCCUPANTS OF LIFE-BOATS THROWN INTO 

SEA — ^A HEART-BREAKING SCENE. 

PERCY ROGERS, assistant manager and secretary 
of the Canadian National Exhibition, who went to 
England in connection with the Toronto Fair, told 
a graphic story of his experiences after the Lusitania 
was struck. He undoubtedly owed his hfe to the fact 
that he was a good swimmer. 

''It had been a splendid crossing," he said, ''with 
a calm sea and fine weather contributing to a delightful 
trip. The Lusitania made nothing like her maximum 
pace. Her speed probably was about five hundred 
miles daily, which, as travelers know, is below her 
average. 

"Early Friday morning we sighted the Irish coast. 
Then we entered a shght fog, and speed was reduced, 
but we soon came into a clear atmosphere again, and 
the pace of the boat increased. The morning passed 
and we went as usual down to lunch, although some 
were a httle later than others in taking the meal. I 
should think it would be about ten minutes past two 
when I came from lunch. I immediately proceeded to 
226 



A CANADIAN'S ACCOUNT 

my stateroom, close to the dining-room, to get a letter 
which I had written. While in there I heard a tremen- 
dous thud, and I came out immediately. 

PASSENGERS WERE AGHAST 

"There was no panic where I was, but the people were 
aghast. It was realized that the boat had been struck, 
apparently on the side nearest the land. The passen- 
gers hastened to the boat deck above. The hfe-boats 
were hanging out, having been put into that position 
on the previous day. The Lusitania soon began to list 
badly with the result that the side on which I and 
several others were standing went up as the other 
side dropped. This seemed to cause difficulty in launch- 
ing the boats, which seemed to get bound against the 
side of the Uner. 

''It was impossible, of course, for me to see what was 
happening in other places, but among the group where 
I was stationed there was no panic. The order was 
given, 'Women and children first,' and was followed 
implicitly. The first life-boat lowered with people at 
the spot where I stood smacked upon the water, and 
as it did so the stern of this life-boat seemed to part and 
the people were thrown into the sea. The other boats 
were lowered more successfully. 

"We heard somebody say, 'Get out of the boats; 
there is no danger,' and some people actually did get 
out, but the direction was not generally acted upon. 
I entered a boat in which there were men, women and 
children, I should say between twenty and twenty-five. 
There were no other women or children standing on 
the liner where we were, our position, I should think, 

227 



A CANADIAN'S ACCOUNT 

being about the last boat but one from the stern of the 
ship. 

OCCUPANTS OF LIFE-BOATS THROWN INTO SEA 

''Our boat dropped into the water, and for a few 
minutes we were all right. Then the liner went over. 
We were not far from her. Whatever the cause may 
have been — perhaps the effect of suction — I don't know, 
but we were thrown into the sea. Some of the occu- 
pants were wearing life-belts, but I was not. The 
only life-belts I knew about were in the cabins, and it 
had not appeared to me that there was time to risk 
going there. It must have been about 2.30 when I was 
thrown into the water. The watch I was wearing 
stopped at that time. 

''Wliat a terrible scene there was around me! It 
is harrowing to think about the men, women and chil- 
dren struggling in the water. I had the presence of 
mind to swim away from the boat and made towards 
a collapsible boat, upon which was the captain and a 
number of others. For this purpose I had to swim 
quite a distance. 

"I noticed three children among the group. Our 
collapsible boat began rocking. Every moment it 
seemed we should be thrown again into the sea. The 
captain appealed to the people in it to be careful, but 
the boat continued to rock, and I came to the conclusion 
that it would be dangerous to remain in it if all were 
to have a chance. I said, 'Good-by, Captain; I'm 
going to swim,' and jumped into the water. I believe 
the captain did the same thing after me, although I did 
not see him, but I understand he was picked up. 

228 



A CANADIAN*S ACCOUNT 

A HEART-BREAKING SCENE 

"The scene was now terrible. Particularly do I 
remember a young child with a life-belt around her 
calling, 'Mamma!' She was not saved. I had seen 
her on the liner, and her sister was on the collapsible 
boat, but I could not reach her. I saw a cold-storage 
box or cupboard. I swam towards it and clung to it. 
This supported me for a long time. At last I saw 
a boat coming towards me and shouted. I was heard 
and taken in. From this I was transferred to what I 
think was a trawler, which also picked up three or four 
others. Eventually I was placed upon a ferry boat 
known as the Flying Fish, in which, with others, I was 
taken to Queenstown. 

''It was quite possible that some people went down 
while in their cabins, because after lunch it was the 
custom with some to go for a rest. A friend of mine 
on the liner has told me he saw Alfred G. Vanderbilt 
on deck with a life-belt and observed him give it to a 
lady. It seemed to me the seriousness of the situation 
scarcely was realized when the boat was torpedoed. 
It was aU so sudden and so unexpected, and the recol- 
lection of it all is terrible." 



229 



CHAPTER XX 

THE HEROES OF THE LUSITANIA AND 
THEIR HEROISM 

ALFBED G. VANDERBILT GAVE LIFE FOR A WOMAN 

CHARLES FROHMAN DIED WITHOUT FEAR SAVING 

THE BABIES TORONTO GIRL OF FOURTEEN PROVES 

HEROINE HEROISM OF CAPTAIN TURNER AND HIS 

CREW ^WOMAN RESCUED WITH DEAD BABY AT 

HER BREAST HEROIC WIRELESS OPERATORS 

SAVED HIS WIFE AND HELPED IN RESCUE WORK 

"saved all the women AND CHILDREN WE 
COULD." 

EVERY great calamity produces its great heroes. 
Particularly is this true of marine disasters, where the 
opportunities of escape are limited, and where the 
heroism of the strong often impels them to stand back 
and give place to the weak. One cannot think of the 
Titanic disaster without remembering Major Archibald 
Butt, Colonel John Jacob Astor, Henry B. Harris, 
William T. Stead and others, nor of the sinking of the 
Empress of Ireland without calling to mind Dr. James 
F. Grant, the ship's surgeon; Sir Henry Seton-Karr, 
Lawrence Irving, H. R. O'Hara of Toronto, and the 
rest of the noble company of heroes. So the destruc- 
tion of the Lusitania brought uppermost in the breasts 
of many those qualities of fortitude and self-sacrifice 
which will forever mark them in the calendar of the 
world's martyrs. 
230 / 



THE HEROES OF THE LUSITANIA 

ALFRED G. VANDERBILT GAVE LIFE FOR A WOMAN 

Among the Lusitania's heroes, one of the foremost 
was Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, one of America's 
wealthiest men. With everything to hve for, Mr. 
Vanderbilt sacrificed his one chance for escape from 
the doomed Lusitania, in order that a woman might 
live. Details of the chivalry he displayed in those 
last moments when he tore off a hfe-belt as he was 
about to leap into the sea, and strapped it aromid a 
yomig woman, were told by three of the survivors. 

Mr. Vanderbilt could not swim, and when he gave 
up his life-belt it was with the virtual certainty that 
he was surrendering his only chance for life. 

Thomas Slidell, of New York, said he saw Mr. 
Vanderbilt on the deck as the Lusitania was sinking. 
He was equipped with a life-belt and was climbing over 
the rail, when a young woman rushed onto the deck. 
Mr. Vanderbilt saw her as he stood poised to leap into 
the sea. Without hesitating a moment he jumped back 
to the deck, tore off the life-belt, strapped it around the 
young woman and dropped her overboard. 

The Lusitania plunged under the waves a few 
minutes later and Mr. Vanderbilt was seen to be drawn 
into the vortex. 

Norman RatcUffe, of Gillingham, Kent, and Wallace 
B. Phillips, a newspaper man, also saw Mr. Vanderbilt 
sink with the Lusitania. The coolness and heroism 
he showed were marvelous, they said. 

Oliver P. Bernard, scenic artist at Covent Garden, 
saw Mr. Vanderbilt standing near the entrance to the 
grand saloon soon after the vessel was torpedoed. 

"He was the personification of sportsmanlike cool- 

231 



THE HEROES OF THE LUSITANIA 

ness," Mr. Bernard said. ''In his right hand was 
grasped what looked to me hke a large purple leather 
jewel case. It may have belonged to Lady Mack- 
worth, as Mr. Vanderbilt had been much in the 
company of the Thomas party during the trip and 
evidently hadVolunteered to do Lady Mackworth the 
service of saving her gems for her." 

Another touching incident was told of Mr. Vanderbilt 
by Mrs. Stanley L. B. Lines, a Canadian, who said: 
''Mr. Vanderbilt wiU in the future be remembered as 
the 'children's hero.' I saw him standing outside the 
palm saloon on the starboard side, with Ronald Denit. 
He looked upon the scene before him, and then, turning 
to his valet, said: 

" 'Find all the kiddies you can and bring them here.' 
The servant rushed off and soon reappeared, herding a 
flock of little ones. Mr. Vanderbilt, catching a child 
under each arm, ran with them to a life-boat and 
dumped them in. He then threw in two more, and 
continued at his task until all the young ones were in 
the boat. Then he turned his attention to aiding 
the women into boats." 

CHARLES FROHMAN DIED WITHOUT FEAR 

"Why fear death? It is the most beautiful adventure 
in life," were the last words of Charles Frohman before 
he went down with the Lusitania, according to Miss 
Rita Jolivet, an American actress, with whom he talked 
calmly just before the end came. 

Miss Jolivet, who was among the survivors taken 
to Queenstown, said she and Mr. Frohman were 
standing on deck as the Lusitania heeled over. They 
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THE CHARGE OF THE 9th BRITISH LANCERS ON THE GERMAN GUNS 

One of the most notable exploits of this famous cavalry regiment was their charge 
on a German battery, which had given much trouble, and their cutting down all the 
gunners and putting the guns out of action. 



THE HEROES OE THE LUSITANIA 

decided not to trust themselves to life-boats, although 
Mr. Frohman believed the ship was doomed. It was 
after reaching this decision that he declared he had no 
fear of death. 

Dr. F. Warren Pearl, of New York, who was saved, 




Germa^tt's Official Paid Advertisement Forewarning Americans 
Against Disaster; Map Showing Where It Took Place. 

This advertisement was wired to forty American newspapers by Count 
von Bernstorff, German Ambassador at Washington. It was ordered inserted 
on the morning of the day the Lusitania sailed. 



with his wife and two of their four children, corrobo- 
rated Miss Joli vet's statement, saying: 

"After the first shock, as I made my way to the deck, 
I saw Charles Frohman distributing life-belts. Mr. 
Frohman evidently did not expect to escape, as he 

233 



THE HEROES OF THE LUSITANIA 

said to a woman passenger, 'Why should we fear death? 
It is the greatest adventure man can have.' " 

Sir James M. Barrie, in a tribute to Charles Frohman, 
published in the London Daily Mail, describes him 
as "the man who never broke his word. 

''His companies were as children to him. He chided 
them as children, soothed them as children and forgave 
them and certainly loved them as children. He exulted 
in those who became great in that world, and gave them 
beautiful toys to play with; but great as was their 
devotion to him, it is not they who will miss him most, 
but rather the far greater number who never made a 
hit, but set off like all the rest, and fell by the way. 
He was of so sympathetic a nature; he understood so 
well the dismalness to them of being failures, that he 
saw them as children, with their knuckles to their 
eyes, and then he sat back cross-legged on his chair, 
with his knuckles, as it were, to his eyes, and life had 
lost its flavor for him until he invented a scheme for 
giving them another chance. 

"Perhaps it is fitting that all those who only made 
for honest mirth and happiness should now go out of 
the world; because it is too wicked for them. It is 
strange to think that in America, Dernburg and 
Bernstorff, who we must believe were once good men, 
too, have an extra smile with their breakfast roll 
because they and theirs have drowned Charles Froh- 
man." 

SAVING THE BABIES 

The presence of so many babies on board the Lusi- 
tania was due to the influx from Canada of the English- 

234 



THE HEROES OF T HE LUSITANIA 

born wives of Canadians at the battle front, who were 
coming to England to Hve with their own or their 
husband's parents during the war. 

No more pathetic loss has been recorded than that 
of F. G. Webster, a Toronto contractor, who was 
traveling second class with his wife, their six-year-old 
son Frederick and year-old twin sons William and 
Henry. They reached the deck with others who were 
in the dining saloon when the torpedo struck. Webster 
took his son by the hand and darted away to bring 
life-belts. When he returned his wife and babies were 
not to be seen, nor have they been since. 

W. Harkless, an assistant purser, busied himself 
helping others until the Lusitania was about to founder. 
Then, seeing a life-boat striking the water that was not 
overcrowded, he made a rush for it. The only person 
he encountered was little Barbara Anderson, of Bridge- 
port, Conn., who was standing alone, clinging to the 
rail. Gathering her up in his arms he leaped over the 
rail and into the boat, doing this without iniurins: the 
child. 

Francis J. Luker, a British subject, who had worked 
six years in the United States as a postal clerk, and 
was going home to enhst, saved two babies. He 
found the little passengers, bereft of their mother, in 
the shelter of a deck-house. The Lusitania was nearing 
her last plunge. A Hfe-boat was swaying to the water 
below. Grabbing the babies he ran to the rail and 
made a flying leap into the craft, and those babies did 
not leave his arms until they were set safely ashore 
hours later. 

^ One woman, a passenger on the Lusitania, lost all 

23S 



THE HEROES OF THE LUSITANIA 

three of her children in the disaster, and gave the 
bodies of two of them to the sea herself. When the 
ship went down she held up the three children in the 
water, shrieking for help. When rescued two were 
dead. Their room was required and the mother was 
brave enough to realize it. 

''Give them to me!" she shrieked. ''Give them to 
me, my bonnie wee things. I will bury them. They 
are mine to bury as they were mine to keep." 

With her form shaking with sorrow she took hold 
of each little one from the rescuers and reverently 
placed it in the water again, and the people in the boat 
wept with her as she murmured a little sobbing prayer. 

Just as the rescuers were landing her third and only 
remaining child died. 

TORONTO GIRL OF FOURTEEN PROVES HEROINE 

Even the young girls and women on the Lusitania 
proved themselves heroines during the last few moments 
and met their fate calmly or rose to emergencies which 
called for great bravery and presence of mind. 

Fourteen-year-old Kathleen Kaye was returning 
from Toronto, where she had been visiting relatives. 
With a merry smile on her lips and with a steady patter 
of reassurance, she aided the stewards who were filling 
one of the life-boats. 

Soon after the girl took her own place in the boat one 
of the sailors fainted under the strain of the efforts 
to get the boat clear of the maelstrom that marked 
where the liner went down. Miss Kaye took the 
abandoned oar and rowed until the boat was out of 
danger. None among the survivors bore fewer signs 
236 



THE HEROES OE THE LUSITANIA 

of their terrible experiences than Miss Kaye, who spent 
most of her time comforting and assisting her sisters 
in misfortune. 

HEROISM OF CAPTAIN TURNER AND HIS CREW 

Ernest Cov/per, a Toronto newspaper man, praised 
the work of the Lusitania's crew in their efforts to 
get the passengers into the boats. Mr. Cowper told 
of having observed the ship watches keeping a strict 
lookout for submarines as soon as the ship began to 
near the coast. 

''The crew proceeded to get the passengers into 
boats in an orderly, prompt and efficient manner. 
Helen Smith, a child, begged me to save her. I placed 
her in a boat and saw her safely away. I got into one 
of the last boats to leave. 

''Some of the boats could not be launched, as the 
vessel was sinking. There was a large number of 
women and children in the second cabin. Forty of 
the children v/ere less than a year old." 

WOMAN RESCUED WITH DEAD BABY AT HER BREAST 

R. J. Timmis, of Gainesville, Tex., a cotton buyer, 
who was saved after he had given his life-belt to a 
woman steerage passenger who carried a baby, told 
of the loss of his friend, R. T. Moodie, also of Gaines- 
ville. Moodie could not swim, but he took off his 
life-belt also and put it on a woman who had a six- 
months-old child in her arms. Timmis tried to help 
Moodie, and they both cluQg to some wreckage for a 
while, but presently Moodie could hold out no longer 
and sank. When Timmis was dragged into a boat 

237 



THE HEROES OF THE LESITANIA 

which he helped to right — it had been overturned in 
the suction of the sinking vessel — one of the first 
persons he assisted into the boat was the steerage 
woman to whom he had given his belt. She still 
carried her baby at her breast, but it was dead from 
exposure. 

HEROIC WIRELESS OPERATORS 

Oliver P. Brainard told of the bravery of the wireless 
operators who stuck to their work of summoning help 
even after it was evident that only a few minutes could 
elapse before the vessel must go down. He said: 

'^The wireless operators were working the emergency 
outfit, the main installation having been put out of gear 
instantaneously after the torpedo exploded. They 
were still awaiting a reply and were sending out the 
S. 0. S. call. 

''I looked out to sea and saw a man, undressed, 
floating quietly on his back in the water, evidently 
waiting to be picked up rather than to take the chance 
of getting away in a boat. He gave me an idea and I 
took off my jacket and waistcoat, put my money in my 
trousers pocket, unlaced my boots and then returned 
to the Marconi men. 

''The assistant operator said, 'Hush! we are still 
hoping for an answer. We don't know yet whether 
the S. O. S. calls have been picked up or not.' 

"At that moment the chief operator turned around, 
saying, 'They've got it!' 

"At that very second the emergency apparatus 
also broke down. The operator had left the room, 
but he dashed back and brought out a kodak. He 
238 



THE HEROES OF THE LUSITANIA 

knelt on the deck, now listing at an angle of thirty- 
five degrees, and took a photograph looking for- 
ward. 

''The assistant, a big, cheerful chap, lugged out the 
operator's swivel chair and offered it to me with a 
laugh, saying: 'Take a seat and make yourself com- 
fortable.' He let go the chair and it careened down the 
deck and over into the sea." 

F. J. Gauntlet, of New York and Washington, 
traveling in company with A. L. Hopkins, president 
of the Newport News Shipbuilding Company, and 
S. M. Knox, president of the New York Shipbuilding 
Company, of Philadelphia, unconsciously told the 
story of his own heroism. He said: 

"I was lingering in the dining saloon chatting with 
friends when the first explosion occurred. Some of us 
went to our staterooms and put on life-belts. Going 
on deck we were informed that there was no danger, 
but the bow of the vessel was gradually sinking. The 
work of launching the boats was done in a few min- 
utes. Fifty or sixty people entered the first boat. 
As it swung from the davits it fell suddenly and I think 
most of the occupants perished. The other boats 
were launched with the greatest difficulty. 

"Swinging free from one of these as it descended, I 
grabbed what I supposed was a piece of wreckage. 
I found it to be a collapsible boat, however. I had 
great difficulty in getting it open, finally having to rip 
the canvas with my knife. Soon another passenger 
came alongside and entered the collapsible with me. 
We paddled around and between us we rescued thirty 
people from the water." 

239 



THE HEROES OF THE LUSITANIA 

SAVED HIS WIFE AND HELPED IN RESCUE WORK 

George A. Kessler, of New York, said. 

^'A list to starboard had set in as we were climbing 
the stairs and it had so rapidly increased by the time 
we reached the deck, that we were falling against the 
taffrail. I managed to get my wife onto the first-class 
deck and there three boats were being got out. 

^'I placed her in the third, kissed her good-by and 
saw the boat lowered safely. Then I turned to look 
for a life-belt for myself. The ship now started to go 
down. I fell into the water, some Idnd soul throwing 
me a life-belt at the same time. Ten minutes later 
I found myself beside a raft on which were some sur- 
vivors, who pulled me onto it. We cruised around look- 
ing for others and m^anaged to pick up a few, making 
in all perhaps sixteen or seventeen persons who were 
on the raft. In all directions were scattered persons 
struggling for their lives and the boats gave what help 
they could." 

''saved all the WOMEN AND CHILDREN WE COULD " 

W. G. E. Meyers, of Stratford, Ont., a lad of sixteen 
years, who was on his way to join the British navy as a 
cadet, told this story: 

''I went below to get a life-belt and met a woman 
who was frenzied with fear. I tried to calm her and 
helped her into a boat. Then I saw a boat which 
was nearly swamped. I got into it with other men and 
baled it out. Then a crowd of men clambered into it 
and nearly swamped it 

''We had got only two hundred yards away when 
the Lusitania sank, bow first. Many persons sank with 
240 



THE HEROES OF THE LUSITANIA 

her, drawn down by the suction. Their shrieks were 
appaUing. We had to pull hard to get away, and, as it 
was, we were almost dragged down. We saved all the 
women and children we could, but a great many of 
them went down." 

H. Smethhurst, a steerage passenger, put his wife 
into a life-boat, and in spite of her urging refused to 
accompany her, saying the women and children must 
go first. After the boat with his wife in it had pulled 
away Smethhurst put on a life-belt, slipped down a 
rope into the water and floated until he was picked up. 

From the lips of Captain Turner, of the Lusitania, 
and from several of the survivors the world has heard 
the story of the sudden appearance among the debris 
and the dead of the sunken liner, of the German 
submarine that had fired the torpedo which sent almost 
1,200 non-combatants, hundreds of them helpless 
women and children, and among them more than a 
hundred American citizens, to their deaths. But it 
remained for the captain of the steamship Etonian, 
arriving at Boston on May 18, to add the crowning 
touch to the tragedy. 

Captain Wilham F. Wood, of the Etonian, specifically 
charged that two German submarines deliberately 
prevented him from going to the rescue of the Lusi- 
tania's passengers after he had received the liner's 
wireless S. 0. S. call, and when he was but forty miles 
or so away, and might have rendered great assistance 
to the hundreds of victims. 

Captain Wood charged further that two other ships, 
both within the same distance of the Lusitania when 
she sank, were warned off by submarines, and that 
16 241 



THE HEROES OF THE LUSITANIA 

when the nearest one, the Narragansett, bound for New 
York, persisted in the attempt to proceed to the rescue 
of the Lusitania's passengers, a submarine fired a 
torpedo at her, which missed the Narragansett by only' 
a few feet. 

STORY OF Etonian's captain 

The Etonian is a freight-carrjdng steamship, owned 
by the Wilson-Furness-Leyland Hnes, and under charter 
to the Cunard Line. She sailed from Liverpool on May 
6. Captain Wood's story, as he told it without embel- 
lishment and in the most positive terms, was as follows : 

''We had left Liverpool without unusual incident, and 
it was two o'clock on the afternoon of Friday, May 7, 
that we received the S. 0. S. call from the Lusitania. 
Her wireless operator sent this message: 'We are ten 
miles south of Kinsale. Come at once.' 

"I was then about forty-two miles from the position 
he gave me. Two other steamships were ahead of me, 
going in the same direction. They were the Narra- 
gansett and the City of Exeter. The Narragansett 
was closer to the Lusitania, and she answered the 
S. 0. S. call. 

"At 5 p. M. I observed the City of Exeter across our 
bow and she signaled, 'Have you heard anything of 
the disaster?' 

"At that very moment I saw the periscope of a 
submarine between the Etonian and the City of 
Exeter. The submarine was about a quarter of a 
mile directly ahead of us. She immediately dived as 
soon as she saw us coming for her. I distinctly saw 
the gplash in the water caused by her submerging. 
242 



THE HEROES OF THE LUSITANIA 

DODGED TWO SUBMARINES 

'^I signaled to the engine room for every available 
inch of speed, and there was a prompt response. Then 
we saw the submarine come up astern of us with the 
periscope in line afterward. I now ordered full speed 
ahead, and we left the submarine slowly behind. The 
periscope remained in sight about twenty minutes. 
Our speed was perhaps two miles an hour better than 
the submarine could do. 

''No sooner had we lost sight of the submarine 
astern than I made out another on the starboard bow. 
This one was directly ahead and on the surface, not 
submerged. I starboarded hard away from him, he 
swinging as we did. About eight minutes later he 
submerged. I continued at top speed for four hours, 
and saw no more of the submarines. It was the ship's 
speed that saved her. That's all. 

''Both these submarines were long craft, and the 
second one had wireless masts. There is no question 
in my mind that these two submarines were acting 
in concert and were so placed as to torpedo any ship 
that might attempt to go to the rescue of the passengers 
of the Lusitania. 

"As a matter of fact, the Narragansett, as soon as 
she heard the S. 0. S. call, went to the assistance of the 
Lusitania. One of the submarines discharged a 
torpedo at her and missed her by a few feet. The 
Narragansett then warned us not to attempt to go to 
the rescue of the Lusitania, and I got her wireless call 
while I was dodging the two submarines. You can 
see that three ships would have gone to the assistance of 
the Lusitania had it not been for the two submarines. 

243 



THE HEROES OF THE LUSITANIA 

"These German craft were, it seems to me, deliber- 
ately stationed off Old Head of Kinsale, at a point 
where all ships have got to pass, for the express pur- 
pose of preventing any assistance being given to the 
passengers of the Lusitania." 

NARRAGANSETT DRIVEN OFF 

That the British tank steamer Narragansett, one of the 
vessels that caught the distress signal of the Lusitania, 
was also driven off her rescue course by a torpedo from 
a submarine when she arrived within seven miles of 
the spot where the Lusitania went down, an hour and 
three-quarters after she caught the wireless call for 
help, was alleged by the officers of the tanker, which 
arrived at Bayonne, N. J., on the same day that the 
Etonian reached Boston. 

The story told by the officers of the Narragansett 
corroborated the statements made by officers of the 
Etonian. They said that submarines were apparently 
scouting the sea to drive back rescue vessels when the 
Lusitania fell a victim to another undersea craft. 

The Lusitania's call for help was received by the 
Narragansett at two o'clock on the afternoon of May 7, 
according to wireless operator Talbot Smith, who 
said the message read: ''Strong list. Come quick." 

When the Narragansett received the message she 
was thirty-five miles southeast of the Lusitania, having 
sailed from Liverpool the preceding afternoon at five 
o'clock for Bayonne. The message was delivered 
quiclvly to Captain Charles Harwood, and he ordered 
the vessel to put on full steam and increase her speed 
from eleven to fourteen knots. The Narragansett 
244 



THE HEROES OF THE LUSITANIA 

changed her course and started in the direction of the 
sinking ship. 

TORPEDO FIRED AT NARRAGANSETT 

Second Officer John Letts, who was on the bridge, 
said he sighted the periscope of a submarine at 3.35 
o'clock, and almost at the same instant he saw a 
torpedo shooting through the water. The torpedo, 
according to the second officer, was traveling at great 
speed. 

It shot past the Narragansett, missing the stern by 
hardly thirty feet, and disappeared. The periscope 
of the submarine went out of sight at the same time, 
but the captain of the Narragansett decided not to 
take any chance, changed the course of his vessel so 
that the stern pointed directly toward the spot where 
the periscope was last sighted, and, after steering 
straight ahead for some distance, followed a somewhat 
zigzag course until he v/as out of the immediate sub- 
marine territories. 

Captain Harwood abandoned all thought of the 
Lusitania's call for help, because he thought it was a 
decoy message sent out to trap the Narragansett into 
the submarine's path. 

''My opinion," said Second Officer Letts, ''is that 
submarines were scattered around that territory to 
prevent any vessel that received the S. 0. S. call of the 
Lusitania from going to her assistance." 

When attacked by the submarine the Narragansett 
had out her log, according to Second Officer Letts, and 
the torpedo passed under the line to which it was 
attached. The torpedo was fired from the submarine 

245 



THE HEROES OF THE LUSITANIA 



when the undersea boat was within two hundred yards 
of the tanker. 

The Narragansett when turned back had not sighted 
the wreck of the Lusitania, and her officers, who were 
ledjo beheve the S. 0. S. was a decoy, did not learn 
of the sinking of the Cunarder until the following 
morning at two o'clock. 

The Narragansett, under charter to the Standard 
Oil Company, is one of the largest tank steamships 
afloat. She is 540 feet long, has a sixty-foot beam, and 
12,500 tons displacement. 



246 



CHAPTER XXI 

THE CANADIANS' GLORIOUS FEAT AT 
LANGEMARCK 

THE CRUCIAL TEST OF CANADa's MEN WONDERFUL 

STORY OF HEROISM AS TOLD BY SIR MAX AITKEN 

A REMARKABLE PERFORMANCE QUIET PRECEDING 

STORM SECOND BATTLE OF YPRES LINE NEVER 

WAVERED OFFICER FELL AT HEAD OF TROOPS 

FORTUNES OF THIRD BRIGADE IN DIRE PERIL 

OVERWHELMING NUMBERS PUT TO TEST CAPTURE 

OF ST. JULIEN ^A HERO LEADING HEROES. 

THE FIGHT of the Canadians at Langemarck and 
St. Julien in April, 1915, makes such a battle story as 
has sufficed, in other nations, to inspire song and 
tradition for centuries. In the words of Sir John 
French, the Canadians, by holding their ground when 
it did not seem humanly possible to hold it, ''saved the 
situation," kept the enemy out of Ypres, kept closed 
the road to Calais, and made a failure of German 
plans that otherwise were about to be successful. 

The Canadian soldiers have indeed shown that they 
are second to none. They were put to as supreme a 
test as it would be possible for any army to meet with, 
for they fought overwhelming numbers under condi- 
tions that seemed to ensure annihilation. They fought 
on, and failed neither in courage, discipline, nor 
tenacity, although thousands of them fell. 

247 



CANADIANS* GLOHIOUS FEAT 

J 

The story of their unflinching heroism was told by Sir 
Max Aitken, the record officer serving with the 
Canadian division in France: 

I "The recent fighting in Flanders, in which the 
Canadians played so glorious a part, cannot of course 
.be described with precision of military detail until 
[time has made possible the co-ordination of relevant 
facts, and the piecing together in a narrative both 
lucid and exact of much which, so near the event, is 
eonfused and blurred. But it is considered right that 
the mourning in Canada for husbands, sons or brothers 
who have given their lives for the Empire should have 
with as little reserve as military considerations allow 
the rare and precious consolation which, in the agony 
of bereavement, the record of the valor of their dead 
must bring, and indeed the mourning in Canada will 
be very widely spread, for the battle which raged for 
so many days in the neighborhood of Ypres was bloody, 
even as men appraise battles in this callous and life- 
engulfing war. But as long as brave deeds retain the 
power to fire the blood of Anglo-Saxons, the stand made 
by the Canadians in those desperate days will be told 
by fathers to their sons. 

A REMARKABLE PERFORMANCE 

''The Canadians have wrested the trenches over the 
bodies of the dead and earned the right to stand side 
by side with the superb troops who, in the first battle 
of Ypres, broke and drove before them the flower of 
the Prussian Guards. Looked at from any point the 
performance would be remarkable. It is amazing to 
soldiers when the genesis and composition of the 
248 



CANADIANS' GLORIOUS FEAT 

Canadian division are considered. It contained no 
doubt a sprinkling of South African veterans, but it 
consisted in the main of men who were admirable raw 
material, but who, at the outbreak of war, were neither 
disciplined nor trained as men count discipline and 
training in these days of scientific warfare. It was, it 
is true, commanded by a distinguished English general. 
Its staff was supplemented, without being replaced, by 
some brilliant British staff officers. But in its higher 
and regimental commands were to be found lawyers, 
college professors, business men and real estate agents, 
ready with cool self-confidence to do battle against an 
organization in which the study of military science is 
the exclusive pursuit of laborious fives. 

"With what devotion, with a valor how desperate, 
with resourcefulness how cool and how frightful, the 
amateur soldier of Canada confronted overwhelming 
odds, may perhaps be made clear, even by a narrative 
so incomplete as the present. 

''The salient of Ypres has become famifiar to all 
students of the campaign in Flanders. Like aU salients 
it was, and was known to be, a source of weakness to 
the forces holding it, but the reasons which have led to 
its retention are apparent, and need not be explained. 

"On Thursday, April 22, 1915, the Canadian division 
held a line of roughly five thousand yards, extending 
in a northwesterly direction from the Ypres-Roulers 
railway, to the Ypres-PoekappeUe road, and connecting 
at its terminus with the French troops. The division 
consisted of three infantry brigades in addition to the 
artiUery brigades. Of the infantry brigades the first 
was in reserve, the second was on the right, and the third 

249 



CANADIANS' GLORIOUS FEAT 

established contact with the alhes at the point indicated 
above. 

QUIET PRECEDING STORM 

''The day was a peaceful one, warm and sunny, and 
except that the previous day had witnessed a further 
bombardment of the stricken town of Ypres, every- 
thing seemed quiet in front of the Canadian line. At 
five o'clock in the afternoon a plan carefully prepared 
was put into execution against our French allies on the 
left. Asphyxiating gas of great intensity was pro- 
jected into their trenches, probably by means of force 
pumps and pipes laid out under the parapets. The 
fumes, aided by a favorable wind, floated backwards, 
poisoning and disabling over an extended area those 
who fell under their effect. The result was that the 
French were compelled to give ground for a considerable 
distance. The glory which the French army has won 
in this war would make it impertinent to labor on the 
compelling nature of the poisonous discharges under 
which the trenches were lost. The French did, as every- 
one knew they would do, all that stout soldiers could 
do, and the Canadian division, officers and men, look 
forward to many occasions in the future in which they 
will stand side by side with the brave armies of France. 

"The immediate consequence of this enforced with- 
drawal was, of course, extremely grave. The third 
brigade of the Canadian division was without any left, 
or, in other words, its left was in the air. It became 
imperatively necessary greatly to extend the Canadian 
lines to the left rear. It was not, of course, practicable 
to move the first brigade from reserve at a moment's 
250 



CANADIANS' GLORIOUS FEAT 







Map Illustrating the Battle op Langemarck. 
Shaded Portion Indicates German Gain. 

notice, and the line, extended from five to nine thousand 
yards, was not naturally the line that had been held by 
the allies at five o'clock, and a gap still existed on its left. 

261 



' CANADIANS' GLORIOUS FEAT 

''The new line, of which our recent point of contact 
with the French formed the apex, ran quite roughly 
to the south and west. As shown above, it became 
necessary for Brigadier-General Turner, commanding 
the third brigade, to throw back his left flank south- 
ward to protect his rear. In the course of the confusion 
which followed upon the readjustment of position, the 
enemy, who had advanced rapidly after his initial 
successes, took four British 4.7 guns in a small wood 
to the west_of the village of St. Julien, two miles in the 
rear of the original French trenches. 

SECOND BATTLE OF YPRES 

''The story of the second battle of Ypres is the story 
of how the Canadian division, enormously outnum- 
bered, for they had in front of them at least four 
divisions, supported by immensely heavy artillery, 
with a gap still existing, though reduced, in their lines, 
and with dispositions made hurriedly under the stimu- 
lus of critical danger, fought through the day and 
through the night, and then through another day and 
night; fought under their officers until, as happened 
to so many, these perished gloriously, and then fought 
from the impulsion of sheer valor because they came 
from fighting stock. 

"The enemy, of course, was aware, whether fully 
or not may perhaps be doubted, of the advantage his 
breach in the line had given him, and immediately 
began to push a formidable series of attacks upon the 
whole of the newly-formed Canadian salient. 

"If it is possible to distinguish when the attack was 
everywhere so fierce, it developed with particular 
252 



CANADIANS' GLORIOUS FEAT ' 

intensity at this moment upon the apex of the newly- 
formed line running in the direction of St. Julien. It 
has already been stated that four British guns were 
taken in a wood comparatively early in the evening 
of the 22d. In the course of that night, and under 
the heaviest machine-gun fire, this wood was assaulted 
by the Canadian Scottish, sixteenth battalion, of the 
third brigade, and the tenth battalion of the second 
brigade, which was intercepted for this purpose on its 
way to a reserve trench. The battalions were respec- 
tively commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Leckie, and 
Lieutenant-Colonel Boyle, and after a most fierce 
struggle in the light of a misty moon they took the 
position at the point of the bayonet. At midnight 
the second battalion, under Lieutenant-Colonel Watson 
and the Toronto regiment. Queen's Own (third bat- 
talion), under Lieutenant-Colonel Rennie, both of the 
first brigade, brought up much-needed reinforcements, 
and though not actually engaged in the assault, were 
in reserve. 

LINE NEVER WAVERED 

"All through the following days and nights these 
battalions shared the fortunes and misfortunes of the 
third brigade. An officer, who took part in the attack, 
describes how the men about him fell under the fire 
of the machine guns, which, in his phrase, played upon 
them 'like a watering pot.' He added quite simply, 
'I wrote my own life off,' but the line never wavered. 
When one man fell another took his place, and with a 
final shout the survivors of the two battalions flung 
themselves into the wood. 

253 



CANADIANS* GLORIOUS FEAT 

"The German garrison was completely demoralized, 
and the impetuous advance of the Canadians did not 
cease until they reached the far side of the wood and 
entrenched themselves there in the position so dearly 
gained. They had, however, the disappointment of 
finding that the guns had been blown up by the enemy, 
and later on the same night, a most formidable con- 
centration of artillery fire, sweeping the wood as a 
tropical storm sweeps the leaves from a forest, made 
it impossible for them to hold the position for which 
they had sacrified so much. 

"The fighting continued without intermission all 
through the night and to those who observed the 
indications that the attack was being pushed with 
ever-growing strength, it hardly seemed possible that 
the Canadians, fighting in positions so difficult to 
defend, and so little the subject of deliberate choice, 
could maintain their resistance for any long period. 
At 6 A. M. on Friday it became apparent that the left 
was becoming more and more involved and a powerful 
German attempt to outflank it developed rapidly. 
The consequences if it had been broken or outflanked 
need not be insisted upon. They were not merely 
local. 

"It was therefore decided, formidable as the attempt 
undoubtedly was, to try and give relief by a counter- 
attack upon the first line of German trenches, now far, 
far advanced from those originally occupied by the 
French. This was carried out by the Ontario first 
and fourth battalions of the first brigade, under Briga- 
dier-General Mercer, acting in combination with a 
British brigade. It is safe to say that the youngest 
254 



CANADIANS' GLORIOUS FEAT 

private in the rank, as he set his teeth for the advance, 
knew the task in front of him, and the youngest subal' 
tern knew all that rested upon its success. 

OFFICER FELL AT HEAD OF TROOPS 

''It did not seem that any human being could live 
in the shower of shot and shell which began to play 
upon the advancing troops. They suffered terrible 
casualties. For a short time every man seemed to 
fall, but the attack was pressed even closer and closer. 
The fourth Canadian battalion at one moment came 
under a particularly withering fire. For a moment, 
not more, it wavered. Its most gallant commanding 
officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Birchall, carrying, after an 
old fashion, a light cane, coolly and cheerfuUy rallied 
his men, and at the very moment when his example 
had infected them fell dead at the head of his bat- 
talion. 

''With a hoarse cry of anger they sprang forward 
(for, indeed, they loved him) as if to avenge his death. 
The astonishing attack which followed, pushed home in 
the face of direct frontal fire, made in broad dayHght 
by battalions whose names should live forever in the 
memories of soldiers, was carried to the first line of 
German trenches. After a hand-to-hand struggle 
the last German who resisted was bayoneted, and the 
trench was won. 

"The measure of this success may be taken when it 
is pointed out that this trench represented in the 
German advance the apex in the breach which the 
enemy had made in the original fine of the allies, and 
that it was two and a half miles south of that line. 

2S5 



CANADIANS* GLORIOUS FEAT 

This charge, made by men who looked death indiffer- 
ently in the face, for no man who took part in it could 
think that he was likely to live, saved the Canadian 
left. But it did more; up to the point where the assail- 
ants conquered or died, it secured and maintained 
during the most critical moment of all the integrity of 
the allied line. For the trench was not only taken, 
it was thereafter held against all comers, and in the 
teeth of every conceivable projectile, until the night 
of Sunday, the 25th, when all that remained of the war- 
broken but victorious battalions was relieved by fresh 
troops. 

FORTUNES OF THIRD BRIGADE 

''It is necessary now to return to the fortunes of the 
third brigade, commanded by Brigadier-General Turner, 
which, as we have seen, at five o'clock on Thurs- 
day was holding the Canadian left and after the first 
attack assumed the defense of the new Canadian salient, 
at the same time sparing all the men it could to form 
an extemporized line between the wood and St. Julien. 
This brigade also was, at the first moment of the German 
offensive, made the object of an attack by the discharge 
of poisonous gas. The discharge was followed by two 
enemy assaults. Although the fumes were extremely 
poisonous, they were not, perhaps, having regard to 
the wind, so disabling as on the French lines (which 
ran almost east to west), and the brigade, though 
affected by the fumes, stoutly beat back the two, 
German assaults. 

''Encouraged by this success, it rose to the supreme 
effort required by the assault of the wood, which has 
256 



CANADIANS' GLORIOUS FEAT 

already been described. At 4 a. m. on the morning of 
Friday, the 23d, a fresh emission of gas was made both 
upon the second brigade, which held the line running 
northeast, and upon the third brigade, which, as has 
been fully explained, had continued the line up to the 
pivotal point, as defined above, and had then spread 
down in a southeasterly direction. It is perhaps worth 
mentioning, that two privates of the forty-eighth 
Highlanders, who found their way into the trenches 
commanded by Colonel Lipsett, ninetieth Winnipeg 
Rifles, eighth battalion, perished of the fumes, and it 
was noticed that their faces became blue immediately 
after dissolution. 

"The Royal Highlanders of Montreal, thirteenth 
battalion, and the forty-eighth Highlanders, fifteenth 
battalion, were more especially affected by the dis- 
charge. The Royal Highlanders, though considerably 
shaken, remained immovable upon their ground. 
The forty-eighth Highlanders, who no doubt received 
a more poisonous discharge, were for the moment dis- 
mayed and indeed their trench, according to the 
testimony of very hardened soldiers, became intoler- 
able. The battalion retired from the trench, but for 
a very short distance, and for an equally short time. 
In a few moments they were again their own. They 
advanced upon and occupied the trenches which they 
had momentarily abandoned. 

IN DIRE PERIL 

''In the course of the same night the third brigade, 
which had already displayed a resource, a gallantry, 
and a tenacity, for which no eulogy could be excessive, 

257 



CANADIANS* GLORIOUS FEAT 

was exposed (and with it the whole allied cause) to a 
peril still more formidable. 

''It has been explained, and indeed the fundamental 
situation made the peril clear, that several German 
divisions were attempting to crush, or drive back this 
devoted brigade, and in any event to use their enor- 
mous numerical superiority to sweep around and over- 
whelm our left wing at a point in the line which cannot 
be precisely determined. The last attempt partially 
succeeded, and in the course of this critical struggle, 
German troops in considerable, though not in over- 
whelming, numbers swung past the unsupported left 
to the brigade and, slipping in between the wood and 
St. Julien, added to the torturing anxieties of the long- 
drawn-out struggle by the appearance, and indeed for 
the moment the reality, of isolation from the brigade 
base. 

"In the exertions made by the third brigade during 
this supreme crisis, it is almost impossible to single 
out one battalion without injustice to others, but 
though the efforts of the Royal Highlanders of Mon- 
treal, thirteenth battalion, were only equal to those 
of the other battalions who did such heroic service, it 
so happened by chance that the fate of some of its 
officers attracted special attention. 

''Major Norsworthy, already almost disabled by a 
bullet wound, was bayoneted and killed while he was 
rallying his men with easy cheerfulness. The case of 
Captain McCuaig, of the same battalion, was not less 
glorious, although his death can claim no witness. 
This most gallant officer was seriously wounded in a 
hurriedly constructed trench. At a moment when it 
258 



CANADIANS' GLORIOUS FEAT 

would have been possible to remove him to safety, he 
absolutely refused to move, and continued in the 
discharge of his duty. But the situation grew in- 
stantly worse, and peremptory orders were received 
for an immediate withdrawal. Those who were com- 
pelled to obey them were most insistent to carry 
with them, at whatever risk to their own mobility and 
safety, an officer to whom they were devotedly attached. 
But he, knoYrir^g, it may be, better than they, the 
exertions which still lay in front of them, and unwilling 
to inflict upon them the disabilities of a maimed man, 
very resolutely refused, and asked of them one thing 
only, that there should be given to him as he lay alone 
in the trench, two loaded Colt revolvers to add to his 
own, which lay in his right hand as he made his last 
request. And so, with three revolvers ready to his 
hand for use, a very brave officer waited to sell his life, 
wounded and racked with pain, in an abandoned 
trench. 

''On Friday afternoon the left of the Canadian line 
was strengthened by important reinforcements of 
British troops, amounting to seven battalions. From 
this time forward the Canadians also continued to 
receive further assistance on the left from a series of 
French counter-attacks pushed in a northeasterly 
direction from the canal bank. 

OVERWHELMING NUMBERS 

"But the artillery fire of the enemy continually 
grew in intensity, and it became more and more evident 
that the Canadian salient could no longer be main- 
tained against the overwhelming superiority of 

259 



CANADIANS' GLORIOUS FEAT 

numbers by which it was assailed. Slowly, stub- 
bornly, and contesting every yard, the defenders 
gave ground until the salient gradually receded 
from the apex near the point where it had orig- 
inally aligned with the French, and fell back upon 
St. John. 

''Soon it became evident that even St. Julien, 
exposed from right and left, was no longer tenable in 
the face of overwhelming numerical superiority. The 
third brigade was therefore ordered to retreat further 
south, selling every yard of ground as dearly as it had 
done since five o'clock on Thursday. But it was 
found impossible, without hazarding far larger forces- 
to disentangle the detachment of the Royal High- 
landers of Montreal, thirteenth battalion, and of the 
Royal Montreal Regiment, fourteenth battalion. The 
brigade was ordered, and not a moment too soon, to 
move back. It left these units with hearts as heavy as 
those of his comrades who had said farewell to Captain 
McCuaig. 

''The German line rolled, indeed, over the deserted 
village, but for several hours after the enemy had 
become master of the village the sullen and persistent 
rifle fire which survived showed that they were not yet 
master of the Canadian rear guard. If they died, they 
died worthy of Canada. The enforced retirement of 
the third brigade (and to have stayed longer would 
have been madness) reproduced for the second brigade, 
commanded by Brigadier-General Curry, in a singu- 
larly exact fashion the position of the third brigade 
itself at the moment of the withdrawal of the 
French. 
260 



CANADIANS' GLORIOUS FEAT 

SECOND BRIGADE PUT TO TEST 

"The second brigade, it must be remembered, had 
retained the whole line of trenches, roughly five hundred 
yards, which it was holding at five o'clock on Thursday 
afternoon, supported by the incomparable exertions 
of the third brigade, and by the highly hazardous 
deployment in which necessity had involved that 
brigade. The second brigade had maintained its lines. 
It now devolved upon General Curry, commanding 
this brigade, to reproduce the tactical maneuvers by 
which earlier in the fight the third brigade had adapted 
itself to the flank movement of overwhelming numerical 
superiority. He flung his left flank round and his 
record is that in the very crisis of this immense struggle 
he held his line of trenches from Thursday at five 
o'clock until Sunday afternoon, and on Sunday after- 
noon he had not abandoned his trenches. There were 
none left. They had been obliterated by artillery. 
He withdrew his undefeated troops from the fragments 
of his field fortifications, and the hearts of his men 
were as completely unbroken as the parapets of his 
trenches were completely broken. Such a brigade! 

''It is invidious to single out any battalion for 
special praise, but it is perhaps necessary to the story 
to point out that Lieutenant-Colonel Lipsett, com- 
manding the ninetieth Winnipeg Rifles, eighth bat- 
talion, of the second brigade, held the extreme left 
of the brigade position at the most critical moment. 

"The battahon was expelled from the trenches 
early on Friday morning by an emission of poisonous 
gas, but recovering in three-quarters of an hour, it 
^JOunter-attacked; retook the trenches it had abandoned 

261 



CANADIANS' GLORIOUS FEAT 

and bayoneted the enemy, and after the third brigade 
had been forced to retire, Lieutenant-Colonel Lipsett 
held his position, though his left was in the air, until 
two British regiments filled up the gap on Saturday 
night. 

CAPTURE OF ST. JULIEN 

'•'The individual fortunes of those two brigades 
have brought us to the events of Sunday afternoon, 
but it is necessary, to make the story complete, 
to recur for a moment to the events of the 
morning. 

"After a very formidable attack the enemy suc- 
ceeded in capturing the village of St. Julien, which has 
so often been referred to in describing the fortunes of 
the Canadian left. This success opened up a new and 
formidable line of advance, but by this time further 
reinforcements had arrived. Here again it became 
evident that the tactical necessities of the situation 
dictated an offensive movement, as the surest method 
of arresting further progress. 

"General Alderson, who was in conmiand of the 
reinforcements, accordingly directed that an advance 
should be made by a British brigade which had been 
brought up in support. The attack was thrust through 
the Canadian left and center, and as the troops making 
it swept on, many of them going to certain death, they 
paused an instant, and with deep-throated cheers for 
Canada gave the first indication to the division of the 
warm admiration which their exertions had excited in 
the British army. 

"The advance was indeed costly, but it could not 
262 



' CANADIANS' GLORIOUS FEAT 

be gainsaid. The story is one of which the brigade 
may be proud, but it does not belong to the special 
account of the fortunes of the Canadian contingent. 
It is sufficient for our purpose to notice that the attack 
succeeded in its object, and the German advance 
along the line, which was mom^entarily threatened, 
was arrested. 

"We had reached, in describing the events of the 
afternoon, the points at which the trenches of the 
second brigade had been completely destroyed. This 
brigade and the third brigade, and the considerable 
reinforcements which by this time filled the gap between 
the two brigades, were gradually driven, fighting every 
yard, upon a line running, roughly, from Fortuin, south 
of St. Julien, in a northeasterly direction towards 
Passchendale. Here the two brigades were relieved 
by two British brigades, after exertions as gloriou», 
as fruitful, and, alas! as costly, as soldiers have ever 
been called upon to make. 

'^Monday morning broke bright and clear, and found 
the Canadians behind the firing line. This day, too, 
was to bring its anxieties. The attack was still pressed, 
and it became necessary to ask Brigadier-General 
Curry whether he could once more call upon his 
shrunken brigade. 

A HERO LEADING HEROES 

'''The men are tired,' this indomitable soldier 
rephed, 'but they are ready and glad to go again to 
the trenches.' And so once more, a hero leading 
heroes, the general marched back the men of the 
second brigade, reduced to a quarter of its original 

263 



CANADIANS' GLORIOUS FEAT 

strength, to the apex of the hne as it existed at that 
moment. 

''This position he held all day Monday. On Tuesday 
he was still occupying reserve trenches, and on Wednes- 
day was relieved and retired to billets in the rear. 

"Such, in the most general outline, is the story of a 
great and glorious feat of arms. A story told so soon 
after the event, while tendering bare justice to units 
whose doings fell under the eyes of particular observers, 
must do less than justice to others who played their 
part — and all did — as gloriously as those whose special 
activities it is possible, even at this stage, to describe. 
But the friends of men who fought in other battalions 
may be content in the knowledge that they, too, shall 
learn, when time allows, the exact part which each 
unit played in these unforgettable days." 



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CHAPTER XXII 

VIVID EXPERIENCES OF T. F. TRUSLER 
AT YPRES 

LOST HIS MEMORY REPORTED MISSING ASPHYX- 
IATING GAS CLOUD FIGHTING TEN TO ONE INTO 

BATTLE WITH A SONG CROSSING A CANAL UNDER 

FIRE INTO HURRICANE OF FIRE HOW WAR MAKES 

HEROES ^A PERILOUS ESCAPE SAVING THE DAY AT 

YPRES STORIES ABOUT SPIES. 

OF ALL the strange personal experiences encountered 
in the war, perhaps none surpass those of Gunner 
Thomas F. Trusler in their pecuhar combination of 
mystery, adventure and courage. To have lost all 
recollection of his earlier life, to have passed unscathed 
through the thickest of the three days' terrific fighting 
at the battle of Ypres, in which he and his comrades 
won the commendation of General French that they 
had accomplished the impossible, and "finally to have 
had his leg shattered by a bursting shell from the 
enemy, incapacitating him for further service-— this, 
in brief reflects only the main high-lights in Trusler 's 
career as a gun-layer in the Third Battery of the 
Third Brigade of the Canadian Field Artillery. 

LOST HIS MEMORY 

Young Trusler went as a gun-layer with the first 

Canadian contingent which reached France late in 

1914. At that time the German General Staff was 

265 



EXPERIENCES OF T.F.TRUSLER 

perfecting its scheme to break through to Calais by 
way of Ypres. Trusler first came under fire near 
Vlamartinghe, just west of Ypres. His division was 
acting as a reserve force. What befell him there is 
related in his own words: 

I have been told by men who served with me on my 
gun that we all saw a huge German aeroplane fly over 
us. Soon thereafter there came a rain of high explosive 
shells from a big German- gun. Several of our boys were 
killed, and the fact that I was not was a miracle. One 
of the shells fell within ten or twenty feet of me, I was 
told, but did not explode. The concussion, however, 
was terrific, and it dazed and stupefied me. 

I remember awakening in a base hospital with the 
wounded all about me. I felt myseK all over and 
could find nothing smashed, so I sat up in my cot. 
Then I got out of it and stood up and asked why I was 
there. A physician told me what had happened to 
me and sent me back to my brigade, which he located 
by the insignia on my uniform. When I got back 1 
didn't seem to recollect anything or anybody. 

Some of the men of my gun company saw me and 
took me back to my quarters. It was necessary for me 
to make friends with my companions again. They 
caUed me ''Howie" — a nickname — and soon I became 
known as ''Howie Trusler." That fact made it difficult 
for my parents to locate me, because when I was asked 
my name I spelled it "Tressler." 

EEPORTED MISSING 

Consequently "T. F. Trusler" went on the roUs of 
the missing. Consequently also, I failed to get mail 
266 



EXPERIENCES OF T.F.TRUSLER 

from my fiancee and my parents. It was not until last 
summer, when I was wounded in the leg so badly that 
I was sent to England, that I made any attempt to 
find out who I was. I confided my story to an English 
woman of high rank who was interested in the hospital. 
She made inquiries among the officers of my brigade, 
and they remembered '^Trusler" who came out with 
the contingent. 

My parents were communicated with and my mother 
remembered an old scar on my foot. Sure enough the 
scar was there. Even when I returned to Montreal 
I didn't recognize my mother and don't yet. My 
people had a great deal of trouble getting me back. 
I had been signing myself Tressler, instead of Thomas 
Frederick Trusler, and when my uncle came up to 
fetch me, the mihtary authorities were not going to 
let him have me. At last they decided to send a man 
down to Montreal with us. When I saw my father 
and mother they were perfect strangers to me. I 
just shook hands with them and said, '^I'm pleased 
to meet you." I learned I was engaged to be mar- 
ried before I left for the front and on my return home 
my fiancee was at the station with my mother and 
father. I didn't recognize any of them, but they took 
me home. 

Although I cannot remember what happened before 
January, 1915, I have a vivid recollection of what has 
happened since. 

After I returned to my gun company from the 
field hospital I resumed active duty, and passed 
through the battle of Ypres. My recollection of that 
terrific three-day fighting will never leave me. 

267 



EXPERIENCES OF T.F.TRUSLER 

The idea of the Germans was to break through the 
Allies' hnes around Ypres and get to Calais, from which 
point they could have struck directly at England. 
Like aU general attacks, the German advance was 
preceded by a heavy artillery bombardment. The 
purpose of the bombardment is to tear up the wire 
entanglements, break up the enemies' trenches, and 
demoraUze the men. Then the infantry get out and 
make their attack. Many attacks have failed because 
the wire entanglements have not been broken up. 

We expected an attack from the direction of Boe- 
singhe, because we had gotten news from our aero- 
planes, that the Germans were massing troops in 
Belgium and that they were coming towards Ypres. 

About five o'clock of the evening of April 23, we 
were getting quite bored, for we were in the reserve 
force along the Poperinghe road, three miles west of 
Ypres. The dull monotony w^as rudely broken by 
the sudden appearance of swarms of French colonial 
troops, Singalese and Zouaves, rushing in from the 
front trenches, clutching at their throats, holding their 
sides, rolling on the ground, gasping for breath, eyes 
bloodshot and staring, many of them bleeding at the 
mouth, but most of them unable to explain the cause 
of their pecuHar actions. Along with them came 
scores of refugees, men, women and children, bearing 
with them all they could take from their burning 
and wrecked homes. 

ASPHYXIATING GAS CLOUD 

They told us that they noticed three balls of white 
smoke go up from the German lines, and immediately 
268 



EXPERIENCES OF T.F.TRUSLER 

afterwards a big heavy cloud of smoke started to roll 
over and over — something like a storm in China* 
that is the nearest you can come to it — and those 
clouds just rolled straight over until they got near the 
French lines, and then the soldiers began to get the 
smell of some kind of gas in their nostrils. 

You know chloride of lime — if you just get a sharp 
smell of it. This gas had a faint smell of that. And 
then again the effect is something as though you put 
your hands over your mouth and your nose until you 
can't get any breath. It's an awful feeling. You 
want to get a breath. That is how this thing is. 
Just the same as a man being hung about seven hours 
a day. 

This compelled the French first line to retire, causing 
them to form a fresh line running from Steenstraate 
to Langemarck, north of Pilkem. They fell back 
gradually to this new line owing to the gas fumes, 
their reserves being taken back with them. The 
wind was blowing in a southeasterly direction at that 
time and the Germans could only gas part of the 
French line then. Gradually as the strange gas 
affected the French they begin to fall back more and 
more. 

The Germans could not gas the Canadians to any 
great extent because of the wind; but they had suc- 
ceeded in smashing the French line very seriously 
into open country, and what few villages were there 
had been blown to pieces by high explosive shells. 
Their idea was to get that line beaten back, so they 
could send in their troops and cut off the Canadian 
line. 

269 



EXPERIENCES OF T.F.TRUSLER 

FIGHTING TEN TO ONE 

The Germans were in overwhelming numbers. 
There were fifteen to twenty thousand Canadians, 
and I know from an official source that the Germans 
had from four to five divisions in action. Each 
division consists of forty thousand men, so that they 
had somewhere around 150,000 to 200,000. 

The Canadians did not see the joke of being cut 
off and wiped out. Their original line was five thousand 
yards in length. Therefore they extended their fine in 
due course to nine thousand yards, passing their men up 
this fine and extending them parallel with St. Juhen. 

Until that time we had never heard of asphyxiating 
gas and were at a loss to make out what it all meant. 
The order ''stand to your arms" was quickly passed 
along to the reserves. The Montreal Highlanders 
were the first to get on the move. It takes longer 
to get artillery wagons on the move, and while we 
were working at feverish haste the Highlanders went 
by, each man singing and smiling, although they must 
have known that many of them would never return. 

At seven o'clock the artillery forces were all ready 
and waiting for the order to move forward. I shall 
never forget the scene at the moment. From the city 
of Ypres there arose high in the heavens huge jets of 
flame, while overhead shells burst by the hundreds, and 
in our ears were the din of falling walls and all sorts of 
indescribable noises. 

INTO BATTLE "WITH A SONG 

It was a wonderful sight. Coming down this road 
were men and women, with children hanging to their 
270 



EXPERIENCES OF T.F.TRUSLER 

arms. There were the French Colonial troops holding 
their throats. Then you would see the Forty-eighth 
Highlanders with their kilts swinging, waving their 
bayonets. They knew they were going forward to 
what these other people were running away from. 
We just dropped our lines and stood by and gave 
them a good cheer. It was a terrible sight, but it was 
beautiful. Some of them were singing. They were 
singing "When the Boys Come Home." It's a mighty 
catchy song, especially at a time hke that: 

Keep the home fires burning 

While your hearts are yearning; 
Though the boys are far from home 

They dream of you. 
There's a silver lining 

Through the dark clouds shining; 
Turn the dark cloud inside out 

Till the boys come home. 

These fellows were singing this song with a zest — 
no fear, no trembhng knees, nor any sign of cowardice. 
We were watching them keenly, and in our absorption 
we let some of our horses get away; the sergeant-major 
turned and said, "Where the devil are those horses 
going?" Of course, everybody jumped, and we tied 
up the Hnes and put them on the wagons. Then orders 
came, "Prepare for action!" 

We removed the breech and muzzle covers, uncapped 
the sheUs, and got the fuses all set. We knew some- 
thing was going to happen, because we were getting 
shells all ready to go into action, which is only done 
when action is right at hand. 

271 



EXPERIENCES OF T.F.TRUSLER 

When the order came to move forward we urged 
our horses with a cheer and a song, our batteries 
tearing along the road with the speed and noise of fire- 
engines. 

As we neared Ypres we overtook the infantry, which 
made way for the guns, fining up on either side of the 
road, the men with their caps on, their bayonets 
swinging high in the air, shrieking and singing wildly 
as we tore along. 

CROSSING A CANAL UNDER FIRE 

It was necessary for us to make a detour south 
and east of Ypres in order to get to the main road 
leading to our damaged front. It also was necessary 
to cross the Yser Canal, about half a mile south of 
the town, on a pontoon bridge. The first gun got over 
safely, when along came a German shell and de- 
stroyed it. 

Under a deadly fire, for the Germans had the range, 
we waited while the engineers worked to construct 
another bridge. Two long thick poles were placed 
across the narrow canal and cross-ways on them 
timbers and logs were piled. The second gun went 
across precariously, but the third was upset by a 
roUing log, the cannon carriage faUing on one side of 
the narrow bridge and the six horses on the other. 
While the cannon and horses seemed to be see-sawing 
this way and that across the bridge, a sheU put an end 
to aU the trouble. 

There was a terrific roar, a terrific splash, and then 
the men were seen and heard struggfing and shrieking 
m the muddy water of the canal, with the horses, 
L'72 



EXPERIENCES OF T.F.TRUSLER 

wagons and guns. There was no attempt at rescue. 
The Engineer Corps went calmly about its work of 
stringing in new pontoons while the stream of traffic 
was temporarhy diverted to the other bridge, and so 
alternately one or the other of these bridges was 
being blown up. When we finally got across the 
bridge and started on the gallop for the front, a new 
menace awaited us. Aeroplanes buzzing over our 
heads were dropping star shells, lighting up the 
wooded roads with a weird blue light; they were 
also dropping high-explosive bombs on the road to 
cut us off in our work of rescue. 

INTO HURRICANE OF FIRE 

This was followed by a perfect hurricane of shells, 
and the last gun to attempt the crossing went into the 
water. Emerging from a wood, we ran into a murder- 
ous gun-fire from German infantry and machine guns. 
My gun and others of our battery were hurled into 
this open fire-swept field, swung around and in less 
than two minutes opened fire on the Germans. 

A field gun is equipped with a metal shield fast- 
ened to the hub of the gun carriage for the protec- 
tion of the gunners. The gun protrudes through the 
shield, and there are also openings in it for the use of 
the gun-layer in sighting and firing the gun. The 
gun-layer, a kind of chief gunner, operates the gun 
while the other gunners pass along the shells and 
load them into the breech. The guns are fined up 
six inches apart because of the wheel hubs, so there 
is an open space between the shields. Sometimes as 
a fellow was passing a shell a bullet would hit it, and 

18 273 



EXPERIENCES OF T.F.TRUSLER 

up would go the shell and kill all the gun crew around. 
We had twelve men and before we had been in action 
thirty-five minutes we had five completely blown to 
pieces. 

Each of our shells contained three hundred bullets, 
and at a range of two hundred and fifty yards one can 
readily imagine how the Germans fell. Yet under 
this torrent of steel they came on and on with fixed 
bayonets, only to be beaten down, torn to pieces and 
piled in heaps. Advancing over their own dead, regi- 
ment after regiment was hurled against us. They got 
so near us on several occasions that the infantry were 
ordered up to repel them. 

That was the first hand-to-hand fighting that I saw. 
It was awful to see men with the blood lust on them 
killing and not caring. Finally we halted them, but 
the German infantry remained hidden behind a deep 
fringe of trees with their own dead piled up against 
them. Our guns could not do effective work because of 
the trees. Therefore we were ordered to use high- 
explosive shells. 

HOW WAR MAKES HEROES 

I shall never forget how these shells were brought 
to us. The ammunition wagon containing them came 
galloping across the open field under a heavy fire, 
the men lashing their horses and yelling like mad. 
They took a hedge there something like three feet 
high, jumping clean over it, wagon and all. The horses 
were simply crazed. Some of them had been hit with 
bullets, and when they neared our guns the men 
could not stop them. It looked as though they w^ould 
274 



EXPERIENCES OF T.F.TRUSLER 

go right on to the German lines. There was only one 
thing to do: the rider of the leading horses drew his 
revolver and shot them dead. They went down, 
with the other horses and men and the wagon roUing 
over and over them. One poor fellow was found with 
the hoof of a horse driven through his face. With 
the high-explosive shells we tore the trees to bits 
and left the whole place open; then our infantry, 
quickly following up the advantage, drove the Teutons 
back. 

Our boys were yelling Hke a lot of wild Indians, 
waving their hats, until they got right up to the Ger- 
man trenches, and they went at them with bayonets. 
Some of the Germans threw up their arms and would 
not fight at all. At last I saw one of our fellows 
catch hold of a German, and you could see he was 
saying something hke ^'For God's sake, why don't 
you fight?" and threw him down and kicked him out 
of the way. And that is what was going on right along 
the line. Their nerves had gone altogether. But you 
can't blame those men. They were doing their piece 
for their country. Under the circumstances a man 
wiU lose his head very easily. 

A PERILOUS ESCAPE 

Meantime our fine was badly pressed near St. JuHen, 
and after the arrival of fresh British and Canadians our 
battery was ordered there. We went right through 
the town. Then we began to straighten out the line, 
but again the Germans renewed their terrific attacks, 
and they drove our troops right back onto St. Julien. 
We had to retire with our guns, fighting desperately 

275 



EXPERIENCES OF T.F.TRUSLER 

all the way. On and on came the German infantry, 
and the retreat was sounded, but not for me. My 
gun and two others, and seven hundred men of the 
Montreal Highlanders, were ordered to remain in 
the town to cover the retreat. 

Our first feelings upon being left alone were, ''Well 
it looks as though we're finished." Just as we were 
thinking that, an officer came up and said, ''What 
the devil are you men standing there for?" Bang! 
Off would go another shell. We were thoroughly 
played out, but we kept fighting. Sometimes one of 
the men sitting at a gun would almost drop over 
with exhaustion, and then an officer would say, "What 
are you doing? Going to sleep? Why don't you go 
to sleep at the right time?" And the fellow would 
turn around, smile, and pull the lever again. 

I lost seven men during the night. One fellow got 
out of action about the easiest I ever saw. He was 
sitting on the gun and just put his hand on top of 
the shield, when a rain of bullets took off all his 
fingers. He just turned round, smiled, and said, 
"I'm hit." He got up out of the seat, walked a few 
spaces, and dropped. 

The Germans saw that the town was being evacuated 
and at daylight advanced in tremendous numbers. 
The Germans didn't expect to meet with any resistance 
in the town at aU, so they marched in singing. We 
wiped out with our three guns the first two regiments. 
Then we were ordered to retreat while the Highlanders 
went forward. The Highlanders were almost annihi- 
lated and we stopped and gave them assistance. 

Never did I see such a hail of buUets. The Germans 

276 



EXPERIENCES OF T. F. TRUSLER 

came on in thousands. The spokes in the wheels of 
the gun carriages were nearly all broken and one brave 
company of Germans got right up to our gun. It was 
saved by a French-Canadian whose name, strange to 
say, was McConnell. With the butt of a short rifle 
he killed three Germans who attempted to get behind 
the bullet shield of the gun. At last the Germans were 
checked and we saved our three guns. 

SAVING THE DAT AT YPRES 

Gradually we got back under cover, and so fell 
back into the original line again, and we fought in 
the general action that went on until close to 
seven o'clock on Sunday. When we went back 
some of our fellows had their clothes almost 
completely torn off; there was hardly a man that 
was not wounded; they were covered with blood, 
and they looked a perfect wreck. They had had 
nothing to eat for three days, and when they passed 
through the British troops, the British soldiers all 
turned around and gave three cheers for the Canadians. 
We did not realize until then what we had actually 
done: we saved the whole situation, fighting against 
overwhelming odds for three days and nights. Out 
of our battery of 313 men, with their reserves, we had 
fifty-two left at the finish of that action. 

I saw a very amusing incident at Ypres.J In one of 
the trenches, they had sandbags placed all over the 
ground and in the sandbags is a small opening at 
which a man stands with his rifle resting on a pivot 
so that he can train it along the enemy's trench by 
moving it back and forth. Just back of him there was 

277 



EXPERIENCES OF T.F.TRUSLER 

a rod standing up with a bell on it — an ordinary door 
bell. Well, occasionally they would ring the bell, 
and almost always some German in the opposite 
trench would stick up his head out of curiosity to see 
what the ringing was — thinking perhaps it was a stray 
cow, or something like that. Instantly the man with 
the rifle would spot him — and then there was one more 
dead German. 

STORIES ABOUT SPIES 

Spying at the front is the most dangerous of all 
occupations. The Germans are very clever at it, and 
one method of sending news between the hnes is by 
trained dogs. One night one of our sentries saw a dog 
dart past him. He called to the animal, thinking the 
dog would make an excellent mascot for the battery. 
The dog came back, wagging his tail, and the sentry 
took him to his quarters. 

The following morning one of the men remarked 
on the thickness of the plain leather collar worn by the 
dog. An examination revealed that the collar was 
hollow, and in it we found a message in cipher. Instantly 
an ofiicer was summoned, the dog was put on a long 
wire leash and driven out of camp. He went direct 
to a barber shop, where the men were in the habit of 
lounging and talking when off duty. The barber, whom 
we thought to be a Belgian, was a German spy and 
afterward was put to death. 

I was quartered soon after that on an outpost 
guarding general headquarters. Not even the King of 
England could have passed the road we guarded unless 
he had a passport. Toward evening a handsome 
278 



EXPERIENCES OF T. F. TRUSLER 

automobile of English make containing two staff 
officers approached. The sentry on duty saluted with 
fixed bayonet and asked for passports. One of the 
officers got out of the machine and reached his hand 
into a leather case. Instead of drawing out a passport, 
he drew out a revolver and shot at the sentry. He 
missed and the sentry shot him dead. Meantime 
aiother sentry killed the other supposed officer. Both 
men were Germans. In their automobile was a quantity 
of high explosives. 

Another case was that of a dispatch rider from 
another division. ''You know/' he said one day, 
"we had one of our sights blown up last week, one 
just Uke that," and he picked up a gun-sight and 
turned it around to look at it. Then he said, "I'll 
bet you a dollar the Germans haven't any sights Uke 
that." The section officer was standing right near 
and he said, "What do you know about sights? 
You're a dispatch rider. You stop there!" puUing 
out his revolver, "you shouldn't know anything 
about sights at all." Although he spoke with a Canadian 
accent, the dispatch rider turned out to be a German. 

I was responsible for catching one spy. I happened 
to go to a Httle place at the back of the Hne, and 
asked for a drink of water. A Frenchman came to 
the door. I said, "WiU you give me some water?" 
He motioned as though he did not understand me, but 
I saw that he did not want to give me a drink. After 
many efforts I simply could not make him appear to 
know what I wanted. I went back later with some 
others from our division, and just for fun we drew our 
revolvers and stuck them in the doorway. Then we 

279 



EXPERIENCES OF T. F. TRUSLER 

all walked inside the house, and started to look around. 
We happened to look down on the floor and saw a 
wire running along the base of the wall; we traced 
it up the wall, through the ceiling, right over the top 
of the roof and down the other side of the house into 
the ground. On further investigation we found it 
ran back into the German lines. It was afterwards 
found that though the man spoke French fluently, 
he was from Alsace and was a spy. If he had given 
me a drink he would probably not have been found out. 



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CHAPTER XXIII 

CANADIAN HEROISM IN THE WAR 

many instances of canadian valor corporal 

Harmon's story — glory of the black watch 

canadians fight in fiercest sections 

canadian soldiers popular everywhere win 

many medals by heroic deeds. 

THE MOST impartial observers on the battlefields 
of Europe are as one in their praises of the courage 
and efficiency of a Canadian soldier. The course of 
the war furnishes many instances of marked heroism 
on the part of Canadian troops.- Langemarck is a 
glorious page in Canadian history; but Langemarck 
is only one. True, the feat of the Canadian battalion 
in that engagement was of such tremendous impor- 
tance in holding back the enemy against seemingly 
impossible odds that it may well be reserved for 
special treatment later in this narrative; but many 
other notable examples of the bravery, discipline, and 
determination of Canadian soldiers are at hand to 
quote. 

CORPORAL Harmon's story 
Corporal Burdette W. Harmon, of Woodstock, 
N. B., who was in the Marine and Fisheries Depart- 
ment at Ottawa, when he enlisted with the Royal 
Canadian Engineers of the First Canadian Contingent, 

281 



CANADIAN HEROISM IN THE WAR 

gives one of the most remarkable and complete descrip- 
tions of the fighting that has yet been penned. 

It was in the engagement in which Corporal Bur- 
dette was wounded that the First Canadian Battalion 
lost six hundred of their seven hundred and fifty men. 
Corporal Harmon was wounded eight times by a 
German bomb when he was caught alone by the 
Germans away down their trenches after a portion of 
the Huns' line had been blown up by a Canadian mine. 

''We knew for several days before June 15," said 
Corporal Harmon, ''that an attack was imminent. 
The bombardments, while largely sporadic, had been 
very destructive, because we had some very heavy 
howitzers hammering away at the enemy's trenches. 
The night before the attack, part of our company 
placed two eighteen-pounders within one hundred and 
fifty feet of the German trenches. This was a very 
clever trick, and the boys who took part in it deserve 
credit. 

"Seven of us were told off to report to Col. Hill of 
the First BattaUon. He talked to us for over an hour, 
and explained by maps the plan of attack. There 
were to be five bombing parties, one sapper to be 
attached to each party. The two remaining were to 
look for leads and cut them. At two o'clock in the 
afternoon we fell in with our respective platoons, and 
marched towards the 'Duke's Hill.' 

LIKE A SEWER DITCH 

"We had to round in and out for a mile and a half, 
in what was exactly like a deep sewer ditch. At 4.30 
p. m., we were in the front trench, and prepared to 
282 



CANADIAN HEROISM IN THE WAR 

rest until six — the mine was to go up at six. At 5.30 
the artillery lieutenant in charge of the field gun told 
us to pull away the sand bag barrier that hid his gun 
from the Germans. We expected a fusilade of shot 
as we exposed ourselves in the gradually increased 
opening. We were agreeably surprised. The move 
drew a very slight addition of rifle fire. That gun 
began to speak. We were right under the muzzle — 
what a noise ! It was sure ear-splitting." I stood and 
watched the gunner. Without hat, shirt only, and 
sleeves rolled up, he flung those shells into the breach 
with marvelous skill. Crouched on bended knees, 
with sweat rolling down his face, he looked to me like 
a warrior king of old. He truly was a hero. He 
fired twenty shots, and was then blown to pieces by a 
shell that exploded backwards when he opened the 
breech. Our grim giant, of which we were proud, was 
stark and cold. It was depressing to be deprived of 
such an encouragement at such a time. Some score of 
German crack shots with machine guns were hidden 
within one hundred and fifty feet. 

''Lieutenant James spoke calmly. ^Boys, in a 
minute the mine goes up.' I climbed on the firing 
platform to be ready for a quick spring up the three- 
step ladder. I called Corporal Talbot in charge of the 
bombing infantry, to come up near me, in order that 
the men might better follow, having his famihar figure 
as a guide. 

A FIERCE EXPLOSION 

"And now the explosion! Can you imagine it? 
Three thousand pounds of an explosive, as powerful as 

283 



CANADIAN HEROISM IN THE WAR 

nitro-glycerine. Lumps of earth as big as barrels 
went hundreds of feet in the air. I watched it with 
childish curiosity. The sun, a crimson red, was set- 
ting. The rays glistened in the falling curtain, and lit 
it up so that it looked like many rainbows. Now the 
Angel of Death began to reap. A large lump beat 
the man behind me to his knees. Lieutenant James 
falls, killed. 

''Our trench is rocked and buried and some scores 
of our own men are killed and wounded. The rainbow 
has no interest. I bend my head and each moment 
expect to have my brains knocked out. At last the 
sky ceased to rain lumps of earth. We leap for the 
parapet. I notice that Talbot is beside me and we 
rush forward. As quick as we were, others were 
much quicker. The short space between the trenches 
is already filled with charging Canadians. A few fall 
as we rush forward. I stop for a second beside the 
yawning crater and try to estimate its extent. I con- 
jectured it was sixty feet deep, and two hundred feet 
across. I ran on and the first German I ran across 
was a little fellow, about twenty, with his leg shattered. 
He was in the edge of the crater, high up on the mound. 
Horror and fear were painted on his face. With a 
broken leg he could not move, and he piteously moved 
his hand to surrender. I thought of all the vows I had 
sworn, and I knelt to shoot him. Thank God, I did 
not do it, but ran on. 

''The next sight almost made me laugh. About 
twenty hands seemed to move from the earth. They 
did not have time to run down their trench and they 
waited for our rush with hands up. We stopped to 
284 



CANADIAN HEROISM IN THE WAR 

shoot a few who were running through the grass 
towards their second Hne. Talbot and I did not bother 
with the prisoners. Our job was to bomb down the 
front hne trench as far as possible. 

RAN DOWN THE TRENCH 

''We ran down the trench for about fifty yards and 
came across a group of about six infantry with another 
engineer named Boyle. Boyle was boss and he told us 
that the lieutenant had told them to stay there. Some 
of us were chagrined. Our orders were to go down 
the trench to 'hell.' Colonel Hill's orders surely 
were more reliable than the commands of a lieutenant. 
A big splendid looking sergeant says, 'Come on, who 
will follow me.' I ran after him followed by the bunch, 
Boyle included — he didn't lack spunk. He thought 
the word of a lieutenant was a command from God. 
We ran down the trench for about one hundred 
yards. 

"We came across two huge cables about one inch in 
diameter, made of many small wires and the whole 
insulated. Boyle asks how we are to cut these; mine 
clippers were no good. I told him to get a shovel and 
put it under the cable. We hammered with another 
shovel until the cable was almost cut. He goes ahead 
with that job, and the sergeant, aided by myself, and 
others, builds a barricade. Boyle had the cables 
almost cut by this time and I asked him to go back for 
reinforcements. He started back, and in a few minutes, 
about ten men came along. We climbed over our 
barricade and advanced. We must have gone over 
one hundred yards when I noticed that the sergeant 

285 



CANADIAN HEROISM IN THE WAR 

and myself were alone. He was ahead and one would 
think he was hunting deer. 

*'We passed dead and dying Germans, but did not 
stop to look in dugouts. It is risky to pass such places, 
but we thought them empty and chanced it. The 
sergeant stopped and seized me by the shoulder, 'Do 
you see them opposite? ' he said. The trench was built 
like a snake fence, and they were in the opposite angle. 

''I saw several heads and one fellow out of the 
trench. The sergeant and I started to shoot, shoulder 
to shoulder. He fired about four rounds when I felt 
a pull and heard a thud. I turned my eyes and saw the 
sergeant bent forward on his rifle, with his head blown 
off just above the eyes. Blood and brains rolled down 
his face, and his rifle was stained a bright scarlet from 
the stock to the muzzle. In a glance I had seen that 
he was dead. 

''I was alone, and down the German trench. It did 
not take me long to decide what to do. I 'beat' it 
back over dead Germans and around corners further 
than any Germans would dare come, until I met three 
or four of our fellows behind our barricade. We 
v/anted to see what would happen. In a few minutes 
about ten men came along. They said, 'Come on, 
boys, we have orders to advance.' I started ahead with 
the leader. By the time we reached the dead body of 
the sergeant, German shrapnel and snipers had thinned 
the bunch to four. 

TO BUILD BARRICADE 

''I told the fellow with me how the sergeant died. 
He lifted his face from the butt of his rifle, and laid 

286 



CANADIAN H EROISM IN THE WAR 

him tenderly in the bottom of the trench. He cut 
his wire clippers from his neck and handed them to 
me. The three of us then started to build a barri- 
cade. Aswe worked two awful explosions seemed to 
hft us off our feet. I mentaUy figured that shrapnel 
could not forever continue to fall at that particular 
spot. A second report, ahnost spHt my ear drums. 
My rifle is torn from my hand, and I feel a sharp pain 
in my right hand and side. Someone shouts, 'They 
are bombing us.' That is warning enough. 

''We have no bombs and are as helpless as children. 
We run back along the trench, and at last come to 
where our infantry form a continuous line. What an 
encouragement. I stop to rest, nearly reehng with 
exhaustion. The strain had been great and that bomb 
had hit me in eight places— many merely scratches 
though. I felt that I had a right to have a rest. I 
asked the fellows if it would discourage them if I 
retired. I said I was wounded and exhausted. They 
said for me to go back, so I retired a few yards down 
the trench and crawled into a dug-out. 

"I dwell on this point because my conscience troubles 
me. I should not have left those fellows— as a matter 
of Hfe or death I could have used my rifle with a mea- 
sure—though small I admit— of efficiency. I am mi- 
nutely truthful in this letter, and I wish to point out to 
anyone who finds anything praiseworthy in my con- 
duct, that when I retired to that dug-out, while yet 
able to hold a rifle, I nullified any credit due to me. In 
that were two wounded— I must be honest with ail- 
not any worse off than I was. 

"The order now came to retire. How hard it was to 

287 



CANADIAN HEROISM IN THE WAR 

leave our wounded Canadians in the trench. Most 
probably the Germans bayoneted them as their bomb- 
ing party made headway. Our bombs were exhausted. 
The seventh division had not gained ground on the left 
and we were being caught on three sides. Hence the 
order to retire. 

"Now I am at the Duchess of Connaught hospital. 
I am fully recovered, and mean to get back^to France, 
though it may be eight weeks yet. 

''You might give this letter the publicity which in 
your judgment is proper. It is written from an altru- 
istic motive, and not one of egotism. I want no cheap 
notoriety, and I regret the way the Ottawa correspond- 
ents dressed up Allen's letter. 

I ''In the attack the First Battahon lost 600 men out 
of 750. Those figures are but ciphers to you, but they 
seem to me to personify scores of battle-torn Cana- 
dians. On land and sea fate never offers to the lips of 
men a more bitter chalice than that offered to the lips 
of a helpless comrade as he sees his friends pass him 
and hears the steady advance of the cracking bombs, 
and already in anticipation feels the saw-toothed bay- 
onet plunged between his ribs. 

"The sun was red and just sinking to the west. Who 
in Canada does not hear them calling, yes calling, 
calling and moaning for help — ENLIST." 

GLORY OF THE BLACK WATCH 

When this war is over the history of the famous 
Black Watch will have to be rewritten. The glorious 
past will in no way have faded, but the more recent 
achievements of the historic regiment, with its 

288 



CANADIAN HEROISM IN THE WAR 

many battalions, will shed additional lustre on the 
name. 

In that new history no story will be more renowned 
than the stand of the Thirteenth Battalion of the 
Canadian division at Ypres. 

There are some incidents in the story of the Black 
Watch that are well worth re-telling. No man who 
intends to join the Seventy-third could hear without 
a thrill of pride the story of the assault on Ticonderoga 
in 1758. 

abercrombie's force 

The Black Watch was one of the regiments which 
formed a part of the force commanded by General 
Abercrombie in the war against the French. They 
advanced on Ticonderoga, in June, through the forest. 
The scouts had reported the place indifferently fortified, 
and held by some 5,000 French with 3,000 more coming 
up. Abercrombie's force consisted of 6,337 regulars 
and 9,000 provincials. But the scouts were wrong. 
Ticonderoga was practically impregnable. The British, 
however, attacked with great vigor, notwithstanding 
the fact that they were under a terrible disadvantage. 
They had no artillery and the fort was protected by 
an abattis composed of large trees. 

The Forty-second had been detailed as part of the 
reserve. They were held back and compelled to stand 
aside and see the attacking force rush up time after 
time, only to be driven back by the withering fire that 
came from behind the abattis. The dead were strewn 
about the ground and the cries and groans of the 
wounded were horrible there in the bright sunlight of 

289 



CANADIAN HEROISM IN THE WAR 

the clearing. At last they could stand the inaction no 
longer. Disregarding commands they started forward. 
' Broadswords in hand they crossed the open space. 
They reached the abattis. With their swords they 
hacked and hewed at the trees. In frenzied rage they 
forced a way. A few actually got beyond the barri- 
cade. All were instantly killed, however. 

FIVE hours' fight 

A writer who was present afterwards told the story : 
"The Highlanders, screaming with rage, rushed time 
after time on us, and it was not till their general sounded 
the retreat three times that they were prevailed on to 
abandon the attack." 

The fight lasted five hours and the regiment lost 
647 killed and wounded out of a total of 1,100. An 
officer who witnessed the struggle wrote: 

''I am penetrated with the great loss and immortal 
glory acquired by the Highlanders engaged in this 
affair. Impatient for the fray, they rushed forward 
to the entrenchments into which many of them actu- 
ally mounted. Their intrepidity was rather animated 
than damped by witnessing their comrades fall on every 
side. They seemed more anxious to avenge the fate 
of their deceased friends than careful to avoid a like 
death." 

The following year the Black Watch again ad- 
vanced against this stronghold and this time, after a 
fight of but half an hour, added to their glories by 
capturing it. 



290 



CHAPTER XXIV 
WOMAN'S PART IN THE GREAT WAR 

COURAGE OF THE WOMEN — EQUIPPING A MILITARY 
HOSPITAL THE FIRST PATIENT WOUNDED SOL- 
DIERS BY THE HUNDREDS — HOW FAST A NURSE 

SOMETIMES MUST WORK CHEERFULNESS OF THE 

WOUNDED DIFFICULTIES OF THE WORK " WHERE 

IS THE THERMOMETER?" FEW DEATHS IN THE 

HOSPITAL — THE HARDEST TRIAL — FAITH IN 
HUMANKIND. 

SOME OF the most vivid experiences of the war 
occur in the hospitals where the wounded are cared 
for. The following account of a war nurse's experiences 
is typical of thousands of other brave women who helped 
to ease pain and suffering among the men who have 
fallen in the name of liberty: 

"Don't worry about me or about the children!" I 
heard the voice near me in the crowd, and turned to 
where a woman was bidding her soldier-husband 
good-by. Around them stood three children — boys 
aged, I should say, about five, seven and twelve years. 
A mist covered my eyes. It was almost more than I 
could endure, the farewell of these soldiers to their 
families. But there was no mist in the eyes of the 
woman. Rather a light! 

"Don't worry about the children," she repeated. 
"I'U bring them up, and bring them up to fight for 

291 



WOMAN'S PART IN THE WAR 

their country, too. You — you think of 1870! Remem- 
ber father in 1870! I'll remember the children!" 

COUKAGE OF THE WOMEN 

Here was a woman's courage unsurpassed. She was 
doing her part, and with what a spirit! I determined 
to do mine. I would not return to America, as I had 
planned. For three years I had lived in France. For 
three years this country had been my friend. And 
now I would be its friend. I would offer my services 
as a nurse. 

When I spoke to the head surgeon of the American 
Ambulance Hospital in Neuilly, whom I knew, he said 
that they were going to take a certain number of 
"auxiliaries," as he called them — women untrained, 
who were to work under the direction of the trained 
nurses. 

"You are sure you want to come?" he questioned 
me. 

"Yes— sure." 

"But you know, as yet, we have no extra beds for 
the nurses." 

"But I have one in my apartment," I said. 

He gave me another searching look, then replied: 
"Well, I advise you to get that this afternoon. Listen!" 
I did. Far in the distance we could hear, faint but 
unmistakable, the booming of the guns of battle. 
"The Germans are within fifteen miles of Paris. 
Tonight, I think, the gates of Paris will be closed. It 
is well — if you wish to come — to come immediately." 

I waited for no more. I hastened to my apartment, 
miles away in another quarter. I packed my suitcase. 

292 



WOMAN'S PART IN THE WAR 

I called a fiacre. We strapped my cot on the side., 
together with my few things. We rode through the 
gates of Paris — the gates that were closed that night! 

EQUIPPING A MILITARY HOSPITAL 

I saw my bed carried up into a medium-sized room 
in which there were eight other cots, and that was 
the only furniture. No chairs, no tables, no bureaus, 
and certainly no mirrors. For weeks I slept in this 
room with the other eight nurses, using our suitcases 
as chairs and tables and chests of drawers. Since 
that time there has been a place fixed in the other 
part of the building for nurses' quarters. We even 
have a^bathtub, which was a personal gift from a good 
friend of the hospital. The nurses who come now do not 
appreciate it. But those who are left of the sixty who 
had five tin basins to wash in — to bathe in — we appre- 
ciate it! 

^'In a httle over a week] we must be ready for 
wounded." The order came from the head nurse 
standing almost ankle-deep in the debris that covered 
the floors, for the building had never been used, and 
shavings and plaster and mortar had to be swept out 
and mopped up — and I had to help do it, on my knees. 
Beds were moved in for the wounded, but no bedding. 
We had ordered dozens of blankets. But we couldn't 
get them. We expected twenty-five dozen chairs. 
We got four dozen. We were short of money; we were 
short of help; but we were long on hope. The hos- 
pital grew almost in a night to meet the needs of the 
Great War, but its growing pains were great and 
many. Still, it proved the stuff of which we were 

293 



WOMAN'S PART IN THE WAR 

made. In the personnel of the hospital was an Amer- 
ican woman whose name is socially prominent in many 
countries. Associated with her were friends. To 
many of them, I imagine, this was the first essay out 
of a drawing-room atmosphere. And they made good 
— most of them. I take off my hat to the American 
woman whose sense of organization, of bringing order 
out of chaos, is born in her, or is absorbed from her 
organizing husband. 

THE FIRST PATIENT 

Finally, in some way or other, we did get ready, 
and the word went around that we might expect the 
wounded that night. 

The moments were tense. They were so tense we 
were fairly hysterical. Hour passed hour. Finally 
we heard the sound of the ambulance coming into the 
grounds. We rushed — one over the other — down the 
stairs to the receiving room. We met the stretcher 
as it was being brought in. I say the stretcher, for 
there was only one. Our first patient! His wound? 
There was not any. Only an attack of heart trouble, 
due to fear. 

Now I can laugh about it. But then I cannot tell 
you the pain of that disappointment. I suppose it 
was due to the last glimmer of that romantic tradition 
which made me look forward with beating heart to 
that first moment. 

WOUNDED SOLDIERS BY THE HUNDREDS 

But the wounded began to come in hundreds. Many 
from the Battle of the Marne that had decided the 

294 



WOMAN'S PART IN THE WAR 

fate of Paris — ^from the Field of the Five Thousand 
Dead. They came with shattered faces — some with 
half faces; with frozen feet dropping off them; with 
fractured legs and arms and brains. Oh ! such sights — 
such sights ! And not only did I have to look'at them ; 
I had to care for them. Heaped into days I got years 
of training. Carefully directed by the trained nurse 
over me, and by the surgeons, I looked after some of 
these men. 

I remember especially one afternoon, two weeks 
after the hospitaFopened. The head nurse was in the 
operating room. I was alone in the ward with ten 
wounded men — I with my two weeks' experience. 

One was an Irishman, with the humor and grit of 
the Celt. He had just come in from an operation for 
a fractured arm. And he wouldn't keep covered. 

''Sister," he said in his semi-consciousness, ''Sister, 
where be I?" 

"In the hospital," I answered. 

"Sister — sure, an' if I had a wife, what would she 
say if she could see me now?" 

HOW FAST A NURSE SOMETIMES MUST WORK 

As I looked up to answer, I caught sight of Pierre in 
the far corner. He was trying to get up. I dropped the 
blankets of the Irishman and rushed to him. I knew 
he was in a critical condition, and deUrious. In his 
skull was a hole as big as a doUar from which his brain 
protruded. He thought he was again on the battle- 
line, and was arising to meet his enemy. 

As I persuaded him to return to his bed, the door 
opened. The orderlies broughtjn an operation case — 

295 



WOMAN'S PART IN THE WAR 

a Frenchman, whose jugular Vein, lacerated by a bullet, 
had been sewed. Was I ready for him? they asked. I 
had to be, regardless of Pierre and my joking Irish- 
man. But as I laid his head on the pillow I saw on the 
pillow of Pierre a red spot — a bright, spreading spot. 
The cerebral hemorrhage that we had feared had come. 

I opened the door — called, signaled for a doctor, 
bade one of the convalescents whose arm was in a sling 
care for the Irishman, while I rushed to Pierre. The 
door opened again. The nurse came in with a patient 
whose leg had just been amputated. 

This was what war nursing meant, and I had been a 
nurse two weeks! 

CHEERFULNESS OF THE WOUNDED 

Yet, curiously enough, we had lots of gaiety, due to 
the wounded. They are seldom depressed. And they 
cannot understand the surprise of the visitors to find 
them gay. Too, they are eternally bored by the 
usual question: ''Do you want to go back to the 
trenches?" Most of them do. 

It was during the first days that I made the acquaint- 
ance of the English ''Tommy" — that unquenchable 
spirit of bravery and bravado. No one can be sad 
with Tommy in the ward. The first one I had was Ser- 
geant Walker. He came in with his leg off. 

"Where was it amputated?" I asked. 

"Sure — and in the field. Miss," he answered. 

"In the field?" I exclaimed, astonished. "Who 
did it?" 

"I did." 

"You? What do you mean? Tell me about it? " 
296 







Ziu^PELiN Device fob Dbopping Bombs. 
Au armored car is suspended by three cables from the Zeppelin airship 
to a distance of several thousnnd feet helnw the monster air-craft, winch 
is concealed in the clouds above. {Sphere copr.) 



WOMAN'S PART IN THE WAR 

''Well, you see, Miss, I was ordered to 'old a posi- 
tion with me men. And, sure, while we was a 'olding 
of it, waitin' for reinforcements — for some of us had 
to be sacrificed if the retreat 'ad to come, and it 'ad to, 
Miss — along came one of those whizzin' shells and 'it 
me in the leg. But I 'ad orders to stick to me post, 
me and me men, an' we stuck, until there was only 
three of us left. Then we started to retreat. And, 
sure. Miss, as I started, I felt 'ampered in me goin'. I 
looked down and there was me leg a hangin' by a piece 
of flesh. Well, now, Miss, I was never one to be 
'ampered. So I outs with me jackknife, and I cuts the 
piece of flesh and dropped me leg. Then I hobbled 
along as far as I could, in a dash for safety — ^a dash, 
Miss," he laughed. 

He had not bled to death for the simple reason that 
the stump of his leg had been seared by the heat of the 
obus. He was awarded the Victoria Cross — and he 
could not understand why! 

DIFFICULTIES OF THE WORK 

Few of us got any sleep during the first weeks. I 
can still see the face of the surgical nurse as she rushed 
from the operating room on the first floor, which came 
to be known as the ''clean" operating room, to that 
on the third floor, known as the "dirty" operating 
room. Which merely meant that some of the men 
were so dirty when they arrived — ^so covered with 
gangrene and filth — that it was not safe to take them 
to the operating room for fear of infection. So another 
jpoom without any appliances had to be opened in 
Ciiiother part of the building. This building, which is 

297 



WOMAN'S PART IN THE WAR 

a block long and half a block deep, has no elevator, so 
the nurse had to carry her bandages and instruments 
up and down stairs from one room to the other. She 
deserves a medal. I wonder how many lives she saved. 

''where is the thermometer?" 

''Where is the thermometer?" was a frequent cry, 
for there was only one then. 

"Why, ward 232 had it last, I think." 

I went to 232. "Thermometer," I cried. 

"Just gave it to nurse in 370." 

I rushed up another flight of stairs, 

"Give me the thermometer quick," I demanded. 

"Can't — using it now," came back the reply. 

"You'll give me that if it's at the point of the bayo- 
net," I insisted, and I meant it, too. "I've got a boy 
down there with hemorrhage temperature, I think." 
I took the thermometer and rushed back to Antoine. 
He had developed high temperature, as I found by the 
thermometer. Before I could tell the doctor, the 
hemorrhage came. There was no way that I knew to 
stop the blood, for one could not put a turn-gat on his 
back where they had taken a bullet from his spine. I 
had to think fast, I loiew. I sat down by him and 
thrust my hand into that wound — it was that large — 
at the same time sending one of the convalescents for 
the doctor. I was covered with blood to my elbow — 
but we saved Antoine's life. 

FEW deaths in the HOSPITAL 

Not many died in our hospital because of our 
superior surgical staff; although, for the same reason, we 
298 



WOMAN'S PART IN THE WAR 

got the most severe cases. However, that is a curious 
thing — when a man dies in the ward it affects the 
other men in the ward; it affects the whole hospital 
for days. They don't get over it. They don't forget it. 

"But you've seen soldiers die and soldiers killed by 
the hundreds," I said to one of them who was brood- 
ing over the death of the man in the cot next to his. 

''Yes, I know," he answered; ''but this is different." 
They seem to feel that when they are in action they 
are not so impotent against death. 

I could understand when I saw my first "death." 
Always I had been spared that. I was afraid of death. 

"You are to go to the room on the fourth floor — 
the isolation room — there is a man dying with gaseous 
gangrene." They were my orders. I said nothing, 
but as I closed the door of the ward, I had only one 
impulse. It was to run. Then I thought of the man 
there alone — ^and went to him. 

THE HARDEST TRIAL 

He was lying on a bed near a window. He opened 
his eyes as I came in. They were wonderful eyes, 
brown and soft and questioning — haunting eyes. But 
he said no words. For three hours I sat by his side 
and watched death creep up. They were the longest 
hours I have ever spent. He opened his eyes again. 
"Wife," he murmured, then "Children." I under- 
stood. "Yes," I answered. "I will write to them." 

The door opened. The rector came in. In his hand 
was the EngHsh prayer-book. I stood up. Again the 
soldier opened his eyes and listened to the beautiful 
words of the prayer. And as he listened he held out 

299 



WOMAN'S PART IN THE WAR 

his hand toward mine, reaching out at the end for 
some touch. It almost overpowered me, that groping 
at the last for a human touch. I had never seen him 
before. He had never seen me. But we drew together 
in that hour, and so we stayed until his hand relaxed. 
As I closed the door and staggered to my room I 
thought ludicrously enough of a conversation I had 
heard of two young girls who had come to France to 
nurse. They had made a great fete of it. Before 
they left America they gave 'Hea" to their society 
friends and sold their party dresses for the benefit of 
the soldiers. They were coming to be nurses ! To hold 
officers' hands and comfort them! Did they know 
that this was what it meant? 

FAITH IN HUMANKIND 

But I am afraid I'm giving a wrong impression. For 
it is not all sad, as I have said. There were always the 
soldiers to cheer one. Most of our patients were 
French — not such French as you know or as I knew. 
There is a new spirit. The traditional mask of their 
frivolity has been discarded — the fiber of their spirits 
has been uncovered. Mingling with them are Sene- 
galese and Arabs, many of whom can speak Httle 
French. 

One Ai^ab I remember particularly weU. He had 
been wounded in the head and for weeks he scarcely 
spoke a word. But gradually he gained confidence in 
me, and began to talk with the few French words he 
knew. One day when we were alone he said: 

''What's the war all about, nurse? Is it about a 
king? And is the king in Germany or in France?" 
300 



WOMAN*S PART IN THE WAR 

He had been a shepherd of the hills and knew nothing 
of worldly things. As simply as I could I tried to tell 
him, and he seemed satisfied. 

When I see the fineness and the courage of "my'^ 
soldiers I wonder how I could ever have lacked faith in 
humankind — in the godhness of the most simple, yes, 
even sometimes the most evil — of men who are purify- 
ing themselves in this war. 

''Greater love hath no man than this" kept ringing 
ever in my ears as they told me that Jean could not 
live throughout the night. We knew he had to die, 
but we could not speak of it. He had been brought to 
us three days before — a hero. Jean was a gunner. In 
one of the attacks of the enemy his comrades had been 
forced slowly to retreat because of their inferior num- 
bers. But Jean stood by his gun. Regularly, unflinch- 
ingly, he kept his gun shooting. He was hit in one 
leg — but his hands were all right and the gun went on. 
He was hit in the other leg. Still his hands were all 
right, and the gun went on. The enemy, hearing, 
meeting that incessant, regular fire, thought that rein- 
forcements had come, and withdrew. Alone and un- 
aided Jean won that engagement. 

Jean had been sent to us. All we could do was to 
make his last hours as comfortable as we could. His 
wife was sent for. She came and sat by his bedside. 
The next day the colonel came to pin on his breast the 
medaille militaire, the highest honor that can be given 
to a soldier of France. 

"I want to kiss it first," whispered Jean. He took 
it in his hands and reverently touched his lips to it. 
And then the colonel pinned it on his breast. 

301 



WOMAN'S PART IN THE WAR 

And now they told me Jean was dying. I took 
some roses which were on my table and went to him. 
His wife was weeping by his side. 

'^I've brought a brave man some roses," I said. 

''Oh, nurse, I'm afraid he's past knowing or caring 
now," she answered, sobbing. 

''Then I give them to you — ^the wife of a brave 
man." 

"Yes — I know. But at what a price! What a 
price I have had to pay for it!" But even as she 
spoke — ^and again when I caught the gleam of the 
medaille pinned alone on the black curtains of the 
carriage that bore Jean to his last resting place — 
I thought what it would mean to her; of what it would 
mean to her children; of what it would mean to the 
small village where he lived — to the children who 
would gather around it — this emblem of great love. 

Did I ever regret that I — an American girl — came 
to the French wounded? No, never. For it is by 
such bravery — such spirit — that we catch enough light 
to rise. 



302 



CHAPTER XXV 
A BATTLE IN THE AIR 

HOW ZEPPELIN AND AEROPLANE FIGHT FOR SUPREM- 
ACY ^HUNTING THEIR PREY HOW THEY AVOID 

THE Zeppelin's fire — ready for the final 

BLOW. 

OUT OF the gray dawn mist the huge pencilled 
Zeppelin emerges, her engines thrashing fiercely. She 
is late in getting back from her night raid, and the 
captain has seen two ominous black spots in the sky to 
the rearward. 

Aeroplanes! Since the news of the night raid was 
flashed to the Allies aerial stations men and machines 
have been preparing for the grim task of intercepting 
the Zeppelin on the return journey, when daylight 
would give aeroplanes their full power of attack. While 
it is yet dark two of the most daring pilots start, and 
by clever airmanship they make a course which should 
give them a strategic position when the Zeppelin 
appears. 

But the crafty enemy has taken another course, and 
when dawn breaks he is not to be seen by the aerial 
watchers. Masses of fleecy clouds render observation 
difficult, and hope has almost disappeared when suddenly 
one of the pilots sees the Zeppelin loom through a cloud 
bank several miles ahead. Heehng over at a terrific 
angle, the little craft swing round in pursuit, climbing 

303 



A BATTLE IN THE AIR 

as they go so as to get the ''hawk position" over the 
enemy ship. 

HUNTING THEIR PREY 

The ZeppeHn has disappeared! Somewhere in that 
upper world of coldness and rudely-disturbed silence 
the ship is traveling through billowy clouds, now 
touched by the glorious lights of the new day. A 
reek of burned oil fouls the pure air, and the roar of 
engines in full throttle pulsates into space. 

Like swallows in pursuit of flies the aeroplanes hunt 
high and low for the enemy, and not until after one 
long despairing dive to earth is the vessel sighted. It 
has cleverly been using the clouds for cover, and by 
the liberal sacrifice of gas and ballast it has danced up 
and dowTi in the air to elude the hunters. In these 
tactics the Zeppelin has the advantage of quick move- 
ments. A brilliant burst of sunlight suddenly reveals 
the ship to the aviators, and the Zeppelin captain also 
discovers the enemy as they wheel round to pursue. 
The aeroplanes are at a lower level, and they promptly 
start climbing. The Zeppelin leaps upwards, and 
setting her elevation planes seeks to gain a still greater 
advantage in height. 

HOW THEY AVOID THE ZEPPELIN 's FIRE 

It looks as if pursuit were hopeless, but the aeroplanes 
hold on grimly. Steadily they gain in forward speed. 
Their engines are fresh, whilst the Zeppelin motors are 
feeling the long strain of high-speed running. When 
the affair settles into a stern chase the Zeppelin guns 
open fire. The airmen are prepared for this and keep as 
304 



A BATTLE IN THE AIR 



close as possible in the wake of the German ship, 
thus masking the guns in the forward cabin. But 
the Zeppehn, learning a lesson from previous encoun- 
ters, has guns in the rear cabin, and despite the dis- 
advantage of shooting in a line parallel with the keel 
they make rapid practice on the aeroplanes. Now the 
situation is growing desperate for the Zeppelin. All 
the ballast has been thrown out, petrol is running 
short, and the engines are showing signs of increasing 
wealmess and irregular running. The engineers mutter 
and make signs to each other. 

Undeterred by the guns, one aeroplane has already 
climbed to the same level as the airship and is steadily 
rising to a height where it will be concealed from the 
Zeppelin guns by the body of the ship itself. This 
Zeppelin has tried and discarded the gun-mounting 
on the top of the ship, and the captain can only storm 
with impotent rage as the aeroplane climbs to a higher 
level. A great burst of forward speed can alone save 
him from being overtaken by the enemy. 

Now the second aeroplane has risen also above the 
fire zone, though one ragged wing shows a wound. 
As a balloon the Zeppelin can rise no higher, for all 
her ballast has been sacrificed, and the captain decides 
to bring his elevating planes back to the normal and 
stake all on a high-speed flight in a horizontal course. 
He is encouraged in this by the sight of the German 
lines below him with the landmarks which he knows 
so well. Puffs of smoke tell him that the aeroplanes 
are being shelled by German gunners, who very quickly 
have guessed what the situation is. Some of the 
shells burst so close to him that his opinion of the 
20 305 



A BATTLE IN THE AIR 

gunners is not flattering, and yet he knows that if 
something is not done to the airmen he is doomed. 

READY FOR THE FINAL BLOW 

The firing soon ceases. A few moments of intense 
agony follow as the crew look at each other with 
horror-stricken eyes. What is happening above them? 

From their little cabins there is no possibility of an 
upward survey, for the great body of the ship looms 
above them, shutting out the overhead view. But 
they can picture those two gaunt birds flying after 
them remorselessly as Fate, and inch by inch gaining 
upon them. When the Zeppelin lies beneath the 
aeroplanes a bomb will drop on the ship's back, and 
then 

In a frenzy the captain plunges the ship downward 
and swings her to the right with a swerve which 
threatens to break her spine. But the elephantine 
manoeuvre avails little. The birds above him can 
dive and swerve with the grace of swallows whilst 
his giant ship lumbers like a derelict balloon. 

''Harbor!" shouts one of the crew, pointing to the 
familiar long building far below. In the coolness of 
despair the man levels his glasses, and he discerns men 
running and signaling. 

A wireless message is picked up by the Zeppelin 
operator — "Two aeroplanes above you." 

The captain suddenly falls into a seat, burying his 
face in his hands and sobbing hysterically. His nerve 
has broken. 

''How long they are!" yeUs a stolid fellow looking 
upward. 
306 



A BATTLE IN THE AIR 

But as he speaks there is a dull thud, and then a 
sheet of flame, spreading with lightning speed, envelops 
them. The burning hydrogen consumes them with 
appalling fury, and in a few instants the great ship, 
crumbling and melting, hurtles to earth like a blazing 
meteor. 

From the earth many guns speak. They but serve 
for the firing salute over the graves of the fallen. 

Two black specks in the sky rock under the con- 
cussions of the bursting shells, but keep on their way. 

A few instants later the sickening crash of the 
Zeppelin carcase paralyzes the gunners with horror. 
Only a German knows what it is to see a Zeppehn fall. 
It is an omen of doom. 



307 



CHAPTER XXVI 
A MARCH THROUGH THE NIGHT 

WHAT IT MEANS TO THE MEN THEMSELVES 

DAWN AT LAST GUARDING PRECIOUS WATER 

BACK FROM THE FIRING LINE STORIES BY THE 

WAYSIDE. 

THIS DESCRIPTION of a movement of a large body 
of troops at night, written by a Canadian officer at the 
front, gives a good word picture of what the move- 
ment of a division from one position to another means 
to the men themselves: 

For the last few days we have been moving day 
and night from one place to another in an atmosphere 
of slaughter. Great aggressive attacks against the 
enemy have been hourly launched. Here and there 
success; here and there disaster; everywhere terrible 
bloodshed and sacrifice of human life. We, as yet, 
being reserve, have not been engaged, but are close 
to the scene of the fray. Almost every minute of the 
day we meet men who have been in the fighting, and 
are eloquent with tales of the battle. To give you an 
idea of what a big movement means I will briefly 
sketch our activities during the last few days. As 
you know, we retired from the fighting line to a charm- 
ing to^Mi some seven or eight miles to the rear. We 
were taken there to rest for eight days, but forty- 
eight hours had not gone by before there sprang up in 
308 



A MARCH THROUGH THE NIGHT 



all directions signs of military activity of an unusual 
nature. All officers were assembled, and particulars 
and explanations given secretly of a long-contem- 
plated move. Of course, all instructions were given 
in the strictest confidence, so that this aspect of our 
movements and knowledge of our military intentions 
I cannot divulge. I can only say that the informa- 
tion was of a dramatic nature, thrilling all of us with 
excitement. The result of the conference was that 
on the same night everyone "stood to" in a constant 
state of readiness. By midnight we were supposed to 
move off for the front, but the order was cancelled and 
we ''stood easy." However, on the following night 
we did move, and soon after starting we learned that 
the whole division was on the march. 

Of course it is quite a complicated business to move 
a division to a certain point. Each unit, from a 
regiment upwards, has its allotted time to pass a point. 
Eor instance, each of the battalions of our brigade 
had to pass the brigade headquarters at a certain 
time. We had to pass at 12.14 a. m., another regi- 
ment at 12.7 a. m., and so on. Then the brigades in 
their turn have to pass a certain point at set time. 

Thus each unit falls in behind the other at scheduled 
time. The following fact shows- how slowly large 
bodies of troops move, especially in the night time. 
It took us from twelve o'clock noon until four a. m. to 
travel six miles to the place where we were to billet. 

The march was exhausting. Men were allowed to 
smoke, but not to talk. The effect is very weird and 
impressive — one interminable length of men tramping 
slowly and stolidly along — whither? To what? They 

309 



A MARCH THROUGH THE NIGHT 

knew not. This ignorance of what may be forth- 
coming and the influence of the night combine to keep 
the men silent. 

DAWN AT LAST 

Every now and then motor-cycles and machines 
would tear by, momentarily illuminating the lines and 
showing them as gaping and irregular. Every hundred 
yards or so there would be a check, and almost imme- 
diately afterwards the line would continue to move. 
One moment one is moving quickly; another, haltingly 
and slow. Here and there you would hear the grouser 
spitting out curses in a loud whisper. Up and down 
the lines go the officers, encouraging the men to keep 
up. In spite of our utmost energy the men straggle 
and gradually get further and further apart, for it 
is very, very difl&cult to keep close together in the dark 
when marching. Suddenly comes a halt. Down the 
lines dash the officers, closing up the men and forming 
their fours. At last dawn begins to break, and soon a 
gay daylight spreads, bringing reUef to all. Weary 
we arrive at our destination. Men are hurried into 
the buildings, and ground allotted to them. They 
arejmmediately placed under cover, so that no enemy 
aeroplanes may learn that we are moving troops. 
By five o'clock thousands of troops were concealed in 
all directions. 

GUARDING PRECIOUS WATER 

The first thing we did on arrival was to place sen- 
tries on all the water suppUes, for water was scarce. 
Nobody was allowed to wash, and for the most part 

310 



A MARCH THROUGH THE NIGHT 

everybody had to exist for the day on the water ^they 
had in their bottles. 

Save for the sentries, everybody, in a very short 
time, was sleeping. At 5 a. m. the stillness was sud- 
denly broken by terrific firing in the distance. This 
got louder and louder, and lasted for nearly two 
hours. We surmised, of course, that a big attack 
was on. ^This was confirmed later in the day — in the 
afternoon — when little batches of wounded men began 
to pass. 

BACK FROM THE FIRING LINE 

Just as"night was falling we got the order to "Stand 
to," and within a quarter of an hour were marching 
towards the firing fine. ^We did not go far but in the 
short distance we did travel we were passed by hun- 
dreds of men, singly and in groups, straggling back 
from the battle fine. [Here was a group whose regi- 
ment had been almost annihilated; there was another 
dazed and scared. They had seen terrible, terrible 
sights, and had fearful tales to mutter. They and 
their comrades had been sent to capture a trench. 
It was thought that the Germans at that point had 
been completely wiped out by our artillery fire. They 
rushed forward — it was Jut eighty yards to the trench 
— only to find the trench crowded with Germans, 
who allowed them to get close up to the wire entangle- 
ments and then withered them with rifle and machine- 
gun fire. In five minutes 250 were mowed down. The 
remainder lay down and tried to conceal themselves. 
Of those who lay down this group alone lived to tell 
the tale, and they were nearly crazy with the strain of 

311 



A MARCH THROUGH THE NIGHT 

lying there twelve hours, expecting death every 
moment. When night came they managed to crawl 
back to safety. 

STORIES BY THE WAYSIDE 

In addition there were terrible and dreadful tales of 
wounded lying helpless and parched with thirst and 
delirious with pain, waiting through the long night till 
aid could be given them. Then here and there was the 
grand story of the heroic man: one going from safety 
to almost certain death to fetch in a wounded com- 
rade. Another giving up his water bottle in the early 
morning to the wounded comrade by his side. All 
night long we heard stories of the ebb and flow of 
bloody encounters. Here a division had routed the 
enemy and advanced; there a division had been 
practically wiped out. The grand outstanding feature 
of the whole thing was that, whatever they had gone 
through, all were ready to return to the hell for the 
sake of their country. Yes, indeed, the spirit is fine. 

Since that stirring night we have been shifted three 
times, and any moment expect to do our share. 
Everybody is cheery and determined to do his bit 
to his utmost. 



312 




Sinking of a. Tobpeuoeu Battleship. 
As tbe British vessel "Aboukir" was sinking after being torpedoed by 
a German submarine, one of tbe sailors described tbe last rnoment as 
follows "The captain sings out an order just like on any ordinary occa- 
sion ^If any man wishes to leave the side of the sb,p he can do so, every 
man' for himself,' then we gave a cheer and in we went. 



CHAPTER XXVII 

JAMES BRYCE'S REPORT ON SYSTEMATIC 
MASSACRE IN BELGIUM 

REPORT OF COMMISSION TO INVESTIGATE GERMAN 

OUTRAGES A HARROWING RECITAL TELLS OF 

MASSACRES "KILLED IN MASSES " THE TALE OF 

LOUVAIN TREATMENT OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN 

CALLS KILLING DELIBERATE " SPIRIT OF WAR DE- 
IFIED" — THE commission's CONCLUSIONS. 

VISCOUNT BRYCE, former British Ambassador 
at Washington, was appointed chairman of a special 
government commission to investigate and report on 
''outrages alleged to have been committed by German 
troops." Associated with Lord Bryce on the commis- 
sion were Sir Frederick PoUock, Sir Edward Clarke, 
Sir Alfred Hopkinson, H. A. L. Fisher, Vice-Chancellor 
of the University of Sheffield; Harold Cox, and Kenelm 
E. Digby. The commission was appointed by Premier 
Asquith on January 22, 1915. The document is 
considered as probably the most severe arraignment 
made of the German mihtary sweep across Belgium, 
mainly because of the position of Viscount Bryce as a 
historian, and also because of the care with which 
the investigation was made, the great number of 
witnesses whose testimony was examined, and the mass 
of evidence submitted with the report of the commis- 
sion. 

313 



MASSACRE IN BELGIUM 

The report makes an official document of sixty-one 
printed pages, or upward of 30,000 words, accompanied 
by maps showing the various routes of the army and 
the chief scenes of desolation. It states at the outset 
that 1,200 witnesses have been examined, the deposi- 
tions being taken by examiners of legal knowledge and 
experience, though without authority to administer 
an oath. The examiners were instructed not to ''lead" 
the witnesses, and to seek to bring out the truth by 
cross-examination and otherwise. The commission 
also submitted extracts from a number of diaries taken 
from the German dead, chiefly German soldiers and in 
some cases officers. 

A HARROWING RECITAL 

Taking up conditions at Liege at the outset of the 
war, the report gives a harrowing recital of occurrences 
at various points in the devastated territory. At 
Herve on August 4, 1914, the report says, ''the murder 
of an innocent fugitive civilian was a prelude to the 
burning and pillage of the town and of other villages 
in the neighborhood; to the indiscriminate shooting 
of civilians of both sexes and to the organized military 
execution of batches of selected males. Thus some 
fifty men escaping from burning houses were seized, 
taken outside the tov»'n and shot. At Melen, in one 
household alone the father and mother (names given) 
were shot, the daughter died after being repeatedly 
attacked and the son was wounded. 

"In Soumagne and Micheroux very many civilians 
were summarily shot. In a field belonging to a man 

named E , fifty-six or fifty-seven were put to death. 

314 



MASSACRE IN BELGIUM 

A German officer said, 'You have shot at us.' One of 
iliG villagers asked to be allowed to speak, and said. 
If you think these people fired, kill me, but let them 
go.' The answer was three volleys. The survivors 
were bayoneted. Their corpses were seen in the field 
that night by another witness. One at least had been 
mutilated. These were not the only victims in Sou- 
m.agne. The eye-witness of the massacre saw, on his 
way home, twenty bodies, one that of a girl thirteen. 
Another witness saw nineteen corpses in a meadow. 

"At Heure le Romain all the male inhabitants, 
including some bed-ridden old men, were imprisoned 
in the church. The burgomaster's brother and the 
priest were bayoneted. The village of Vise was com- 
pletely destroyed. Officers directed the incendiaries. 
Antiques and china were removed from the houses 
before their destruction, by officers, who guarded the 
plunder, revolver in hand. 

TELLS OF MASSACRES 

"Entries in a German diary show that on August 
10 the German soldiers gave themselves up to debauch- 
ery in the streets of Li^ge, and on the night of the 
20th a massacre took place in the streets. . . . Though 
the cause of the massacre is in dispute, the results are 
known with certainty. The Rue des Pitteurs and 
houses in the Place de I'llniversit^ and the Quai des 
Pecheurs were systematically fired with benzine; and 
many inhabitants were burned alive in their houses, 
their efforts to escape being prevented by rifle fire. 
Twenty people were shot while trying to escape, 
before the eyes of one of the witnesses. The Li^ge 

315 



MASSACRE IN BELGIUM 

Fire Brigade turned out, but was not allowed to extin- 
guish the fire. Its carts, however, were usefully 
employed in removing heaps of civilian corpses to the 
Town HaU." 

Taking up the Valleys of the Meuse and Sambre, the 
report gives lengthy details of terrible conditions 
described by witnesses at Andenne, and says: 

"About four hundred people lost their hves in this 
massacre, some on the banks of the Meuse, where they 
were shot according to orders given, and some in the 
cellars of the houses where they had taken refuge. 
Eight men belonging to one family were murdered. 
Another man was placed close to a machine gun which 
was fired through him. His wife brought his body home 
on a wheelbarrow. The Germans broke into her house 
and ransacked it. 

" A hair-dresser was murdered in his kitchen where 
he was sitting with a child on each knee. A paral3rtic 
Vv^as murdered in his garden. After this came the 
general sack of the town. Many of the inhabitants 
who escaped the massacre were kept as prisoners and 
compelled to clear the houses of corpses and bury them 
in trenches. These prisoners were subsequently used 
as a shelter and protection for a pontoon bridge which 
the Germans had built across the river and were 
so used to prevent the Belgian forts from firing 
upon it. 

"A few days later the Germans celebrated a 'fete 
nocturne' in the square. Hot wine, located in the 
town, was drunk, and the women were compelled to 
give three cheers for the Kaiser and to sing 'Deutsch- 
land iiber Alles.'" 
316 



MASSACRE IN BELGIUM 

"killed in masses" 

Similar details are recited at much length in reference 
to the districts of Namur, Charleroi and the town of 
Dinant. At the latter point, the report says, " Unarmed 
civilians were killed in masses. We have no reason 
to believe that the civilian population of Dinant 
gave any provocation or that any other defense can 
be put forward to justify the treatment inflicted 
upon its citizens." 

The commission stated that it had received a great 
mass of evidence on ''scenes of chronic outrage" in the 
territory bounded by the towns Aerschot, Malines, 
Vilvorde and Louvain. It stated that the total number 
of outrages was so great that the commission could 
not refer to them all. 

''The commission is specially impressed by the 
character of the outrages committed in the smaller 
villages. Many of these are exceptionally shocking 
and cannot be regarded as contemplated or prescribed 
by responsible commanders of the troops by whom they 
were commanded. Evidence goes to show that deaths 
in these villages were due not to accident but to delib- 
erate purpose. The wounds were generally stabs or 
cuts, and for the most part appear to have been inflicted 
with a bayonet. 

"In Sempst the corpse of a man with his legs cut 
off, who was partly bound, was seen by a witness, who 
also saw a girl of seventeen in great distress dressed 
only in a chemise. She alleged that she herself and 
other girls had been dragged into a field, stripped 
naked and attacked, and that some of them had been 
killed with a bayonet." 

317 



MASSACRE IN BELGIUM 

Taking up conditions at Aerschot and the surround- 
ing district during September, the report says: 

"At Haecht several children had been murdered; 
one of two or three years old was found nailed to the 
door of a farmhouse by its hands and feet, a crime which 
seems almost incredible, but the evidence for which we 
feel bound to accept. At Eppeghem the body of a 
child of two was seen pinned to the ground with a 
German lance. The same witness saw a mutilated 
woman alive near Weerde on the same day." 

A chapter is given to the terrible conditions at 
Louvain, where the report states, "massacre, fire and 
destruction went on. . . . Citizens were shot and 
others taken prisoners and compelled to go with the 
troops. Soldiers went through the streets saying, 'Man 
hat geschossen' (some one has fired on us). 

THE TALE OF LOUVAIN 

"The massacre of civilians at Louvain was not 
confined to its citizens. Large crowds of people were 
brought into Louvain from the surrounding districts, 
not only from Aerschot and Gelrod, but also from other 
places. For example, a witness describes how many 
women and children were taken in carts to Louvain, 
and there placed in a stable. Of the hundreds of 
people thus taken from the various villages and brought 
to Louvain as prisoners, some were massacred there, 
others were forced to march along with citizens of 
Louvain through various places, some being ultimately 
sent to the Belgian lines at Malines, others were taken 
in trucks to Cologne, others were released. 

"Ropes were put around the necks of some and they 
318 



MASSACRE IN BELGIUM 



were told they would be hanged. An order then came 
that they were to be shot instead of hanged. A firing 
squad was prepared, and five or six prisoners were put 
up, but were not shot. . . . This taking of the inhab- 
itants in groups and marching them to various places 
must evidently have been done under the direction of a 
higher military authority. The ill-treatment of the 
prisoners was under the eyes and often under the direc- 
tion or sanction of officers, and officers themselves took 
part in it 

''It is to be noticed that cases occur in the depositions 
in which humane acts by individual officers and soldiers 
are mentioned, or in which officers are said to have 
expressed regret at beiog obliged to carry out orders 
for cruel action against the civilians. Similarly, we 
find entries in diaries which reveal a genuine pity for 
the population and disgust at the conduct of the 
enemy. It appears that a German non-commissioned 
officer stated definitely that he 'was acting under orders 
and executing them with great unwillingness.' A 
commissioned officer on being asked at Louvain by a 
witness, a highly educated man, about the horrible 
acts committed by the soldiers, said he 'was merely 
executing orders,' and that he himself would be shot 
if he did not execute them." 

Another division of the report is on the "kilHng of 
non-combatants in France." This is not as detailed 
as the case of Belgium, as the commission states that 
the French official report gives the most complete 
account as to the invaded districts in France. It 
adds: 

"The evidence before us proves that, in the parts 

319 



MASSACRE IN BELGIUM 

of France referred to, murder of unoffending civilians 
and other acts of cruelty, including aggravated cases 
of felonious attack, carried out under threat of death, 
and sometimes actually followed by murder of the vic- 
tim, were committed by some of the German troops.^' 

TREATMENT OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN 

A special chapter is given to the treatment of women 
and children. The latter, it is said, frequently received 
milder treatment than the men. But many instances 
are given of ''calculated cruelty, often going the length 
of murder, towards the women and children." A wit- 
ness gives a story, very circumstantial in its details, 
of how women were publicly attacked in the market 
place of the city, five young German officers assisting. 
The report goes on: ''In the evidence before us there 
are cases tending to show that aggravated crimes 
against women were sometimes severely punished. 
These instances are sufficient to show that the maltreat- 
ment of women was not part of the military scheme of 
the invaders, however much it may appear to have 
been the inevitable result of the system of terror 
deliberately adopted in certain regions. 

"It is clearly shown that many offences were com- 
mitted against infants and quite young children. On 
one occasion children were even roped together and 
used as a military screen against the enemy, on another 
three soldiers went into action carrying small children 
to protect themselves from flank fire. It is difficult 
to imagine the motives which may have prompted such 
acts. Wliether or not Belgian civilians fired on German 
soldiers, young children at any rate did not fire." 
320 . - 



MASSACRE IN BELGIUM 
> > 

Many instances are given of the use of civilians as 
screens during the mihtary operation. Cases of the 
Red Cross being misused for offensive mihtary purposes, 
and of abuse of the white flag are also given. As to the 
latter the report says : '^ There is in our opinion sufficient 
evidence that these offences have been frequent, 
deliberate and in many cases committed by whole 
units under orders. All the facts mentioned are in 
contravention of The Hague Convention, signed by the 
Great Powers, including France, Germany, Great 
Britain and the United States, in 1907." 

A division of the report is given to diaries of German 
soldiers. The entry of a sergeant of the First Guards 
Regiment, who received the Iron Cross, says, under 
date of August 10: ''A transport of 300 Belgians came 
through Duisburg in the morning. Of these, eighty, 
including the Oberburgomaster, were shot according 
to martial law." The diary of a member of the Fourth 
Company of Jagers says, under date of August 23: 
''About 220 inhabitants and the village were burned." 
Another diary, by a member of the Second Mounted 
Battery, First Kurhessian Field Artillery Regiment, 
No. 11, records an incident which happened in French 
territory near Lille on October 11: "We had no fight, 
but we caught about twenty men and shot them." 
The commission says of this last diary: ''By this 
time killing not in a fight would seem to have passed 
into a habit." 

The report adds that the most important entry was 

contained in diary No. 19. This contained no name and 

address, but names referred to in the diary indicate 

that the entries were made by an officer of the First 

21 321 



MASSACRE IN BELGIUM 

Regiment of Foot Guards. The entry made at Berme- 
ton on August 24 says : ''We took about 1 ,000 prisoners ; 
at least 500 were shot. The village was burned because 
inhabitants had also shot. Two civilians were shot at 
once." 

"If a line is drawn on a map from the Belgian 
frontier to Liege and continued to Charleroi, and a 
second line drawn from Liege to Malines, a sort of 
figure resembling an irregular Y will be formed. It 
is along this 'Y' that most of the systematic (as opposed 
to isolated) outrages were committed. If the period 
from August 4 to August 30 is taken it will be found to 
cover most of these organized outrages. Termonde and 
Alost extend, it is true, beyond the 'Y' Unes, and they 
belong to the month of September. Murder, assault, 
arson and pillage began from the moment when the 
German army crossed the frontier. For the first 
fortnight of the war the towns and villages near Liege 
were the chief sufferers. From August 19 to the end 
of the month outrages spread in the direction of 
Charleroi and Malines and reached their period of 
greatest intensity. 

*' There is a certain significance in the fact that the 
outrages around Liege coincide with the unexpected 
resistance of the Belgian army in that district, and 
that the slaughter which reigned from August 19 to 
the end of the month is contemporaneous with the 
period when the German army's need for a quick 
passage through Belgiiun at all costs was deemed 
imperative. 

" In all wars occur many shocking and outrageous acts 
of men of criminal insti^icts whose worst passions are 
322 



MASSACRE IN BELGIUM 

v^ ■■- ■ ■ ■-■■ - ■■, ■■ I ■ - ■ - — . — — ■■ —i^ 

unloosed by the immunity which the conditions of 
warfare afford. Drunkenness, moreover, may turn 
even a soldier who has no criminal habits into a brute, 
and there is evidence that intoxication was extremely 
prevalent among the German army, both ia Belgium 
and in France. Unfortunately little seems to have 
been done to repress this source of danger. 

CALLS KILLING DELIBERATE 

'' In the present war, however — and this is the gravest 
charge against the German army — the evidence shows 
that the killing of non-combatants was carried out to 
an extent for which no previous war between nations 
claiming to be civilized (for such cases as the atrocities 
perpetrated by the Turks on the Bulgarian Christians in 
1876, and on the Armenian Christians in 1895 and 1896, 
do not belong to that categor}^) furnishes any precedent. 
That this killing was done as part of a deliberate plan 
is clear from the facts hereinbefore set forth regarding 
Louvain, Aerschot, Dinant and other towns. The 
killing was done under orders in each place. It began 
at a certain fixed date. Some of the officers who car- 
ried out the work did it reluctantly, and said they were 
obeying directions from their chiefs. The same remarks 
apply to the destruction of property. House burning 
was part of the program; and villages, even large parts 
of a city, were given to the flames as part of the terroriz- 
ing policy. 

'^Citizens of neutral states who visited Belgium in 
December and January report that the German 
authorities do not deny that non-combatants were 
systematically killed in large numbers during the 

323 



MASSACRE IN BELGIUM 

first weeks of the invasion, and this, so far as we know, 
has never been officially denied. 

''The German government has, however, sought 
to justify these severities on the grounds of military 
necessity and has excused them as retaliation for 
cases in which civilians fired on German troops. There 
may have been cases in which such firing occurred, but 
no proof has ever been given, or, to our knowledge, 
attempted to be given, of such cases, rov of the stories 
of shocking outrages perpetrated by Belgian men and 
women on German soldiers. . . . 

"We gladly record the instances where the evidence 
shows that humanity has not wholly disappeared from 
some members of the German army and that they 
realized that the responsible heads of that organization 
were employing them not in war but in butchery: 'I am 
merely executing orders, and I should be shot if I did 
not execute them,' said an officer to a witness at Lou- 
vain. At Brussels another officer said, 'I have not done 
one hundredth part of what we have been ordered to 
do by the high German military authorities.' 

''That these acts should have been perpetrated on 
the peaceful population of an unoffending country 
which was not at war with its invaders, but merely 
defending its own neutrality, guaranteed by the 
invading power, may excite amazement and even 
incredulity. It was with amazement and almost with 
incredulity that the commission first read the deposi- 
tions relating to such acts. But when the evidence 
regarding Liege was followed by that regarding Aer- 
schot, Louvain, Andenne, Dinant, and the other towns 
and villages, the cumulative effect of such a mass 
324 



MASSACRE IN BELGIUM 

of concurrent testimony became irresistible, and we 
were driven to the conclusion that the things de- 
scribed had really happened. The question then arose 
how they could have happened. 

''The explanation seems to be that these excesses 
were committed — in some cases ordered, in others 
allowed — on a system and in pursuance of a set purpose. 
That purpose was to strike terror into the civil popu- 
lation and dishearten the Belgian troops, so as to crush 
down resistance and extinguish the very spirit of self- 
defense. The pretext that civilians had fired upon the 
invading troops was used to justify not merely the 
shooting of individual franc-tireurs, but the murder 
of large numbers of innocent civilians, an act absolutely 
forbidden by the rules of civilized warfare. 

"spirit of war deified" 

"In the minds of Prussian officers war seems to have 
become a sort of sacred mission, one of the highest 
functions of the omnipotent state, which is itself as 
much an army as a state. Ordinary morality and the 
ordinary sentiment of pity vanish in its presence, 
superseded by a new standard which justifies to the 
soldier every means that can conduce to success, 
however shocking to a natural sense of justice and 
humanity, however revolting to his own feelings. The 
spirit of war is deified. Obedience to the state and 
its war lord leaves no room for any other duty or 
feeling. Cruelty becomes legitimate when it promises 
victory. Proclaimed by the heads of the army, this 
doctrine would seem to have permeated the officers 
and affected even the private soldiers, leading them to 

325 



MASSACRE IN BELGIUM 

justify the killing of non-combatants as an act of war, 
and so accustoming them to slaughter that even women 
and children become at last the victims. 

"It cannot be supposed to be a national doctrine, 
for it neither springs from nor reflects the mind and 
feelings of the German people as they have heretofore 
been known to other nations. It is specifically military 
doctrine, the outcome of a theory held by a ruling 
caste who have brooded and thought, written and 
talked and dreamed about war until they have fallen 
under its obsession and been hypnotized by its spirit. 

"The doctrine is plainly set forth in the German 
official monograph on the usages of war on land, issued 
under the direction of the German staff. This book 
is perva^ied throughout by the view that whatever 
military needs suggest becomes thereby lawful, and 
upon this principle, as the diaries show, the German 
officers acted. 

"If this explanation be the true one, the mystery 
is solved, and that which seemed scarcely credible 
becomes more intelligible though not less pernicious. 
This is not the only case that history records in which 
a false theory, disguising itself as loyalty to a state or 
to a church, has perverted the conception of duty and 
become a source of danger to the world." 

THE commission's CONCLUSIONS 

The conclusions of the commission, as to the various 
detailed recitals, are as follows: 

"We may now sum up and endeavor to explain the 
character and significance of the wrongful acts done 
by the German army in Belgium. 
326 



MASSACRE IN BELGIUM 



"It is proved, first, that there were in many parts 
of Belgium deUberate and systematically organized 
massacres of the civil population accompanied by many 
isolated murders and other outrages. 

''Second — That in the conduct of the war generally 
innocent civilians, both men and women, were mur- 
dered in large numbers, women attacked and children 
murdered. 

''Third — That looting, house burning and the wanton 
destruction of 
property were or- 
dered and coun- 
tenanced by the 
officers of the 
German army, 
that elaborate 
provision had 
been made for 
systematic incen- 
diarism at the 
very outbreak of 
the war, and that 
the burning and 
destruction were frequently where no military necessity 
could be alleged, being, indeed, part of a system of 
general terrorization. 

"Fourth — That the rules and usages of war were 
frequently broken, particularly by the using of civilians, 
including women and children, as a shield for advancing 
forces exposed to fire, to a less degree by kiUing the 
wounded and prisoners, and in the frequent abuse of 
the Red Cross and the white flag. 

327 




"Their First Success." 
"At Morfontaine, near Longwy, the Germans 
shot two fifteen-year-old children who had 
warned the French gendarmes of the enemy's 
arrival," — The Newspapers. 



MASSACRE IN BELGIUM 

'^ Sensible as they are of the gravity of these con- 
clusions, the commission conceive that they would be 
doing less than their duty if they failed to record them 
as fully estabUshed by the evidence. Murder, lust and 
pillage prevailed over many partio of Belgium on a 
scale unparalleled in any war between civilized nations 
during the last three centuries. 

''Our function is ended when we have stated what 
the evidence establishes, but we may be permitted to 
express our belief that these disclosures will not have 
been made in vain if they touch and rouse the conscience 
of mankind, and we venture to hope that as soon as the 
present war is over, the nations of the world in council 
will consider what means can be provided and sanctions 
devised to prevent the recurrence of such horrors as 
our generation is now witnessing." 



328 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

PITIFUL FLIGHT OF A MILLION WOMEN 

By Philip Gibbs 
Of the London Daily Chronicle 

THE GERMAN ADVANCE UPON PARIS THE PRIZE 

OF PARIS HEROIC EFFORTS OF FRENCH SOLDIERS 

GERMANS BALKED OF THEIR PRIZE SIXTY MILES 

OF FUGITIVES TERROR IN EYES PARIS THE 

BEAUTIFUL. 

[The following article is reproduced by the courtesy of the 
New York Times.] 

AT LEAST a million German soldiers — that is no 
exaggeration of a light pen, but the sober and actual 
truth — were advancing steadily upon the capital of 
France. They were close to Beauvais when I escaped 
from what was then a death-trap. They were fighting 
our British troops at Creil when I came to that town. 
Upon the following days they were holding our men in 
the Forest of Compiegne. They had been as near to 
Paris as Senlis, almost within gunshot of the outer forts. 

'^ Nothing seems to stop them/' said many soldiers 
with whom I spoke. ''We kill them and kill them, but 
they come on." 

The situation seemed to me almost ready for the 
supreme tragedy — the capture or destruction of Paris. 
The northwest of France lay very open to the enemy, 

329 



FLIGHT OF A MILLION WOMEN 

abandoned as far south as Abbeville and Amiens, too 
lightly held by a mixed army corps of French and 
Algerian troops with their headquarters at Aumale. 

Here was an easy way to Paris. 

Always obsessed with the idea that the Germans 
must come from the east, the almost fatal error of this 
war, the French had girdled Paris with almost impene- 
trable forts on the east side, from those of Ecouen and 
Montmorency, by the far-flung forts of Chelles and 
Champigny, to those of Susy and Villeneuve, on the 
outer lines of the triple cordon; but on the west side, 
between Pontoise and Versailles, the defenses of Paris 
were weak. I say, "were," because during the last 
days thousands of men were digging trenches and 
throwing up ramparts. Only the snakelike Seine, 
twining into a Pegoud loop, forms a natural defense to 
the western approach to the city, none too secure 
against men who have crossed many rivers in their 
desperate assaults. 

THE PRIZE OF PARIS 

This, then, was the Germans' chance; it was for 
this that they had fought their way westward and 
southward through incessant battlefields from Mons 
and Charleroi to St. Quentin and Amiens and down 
to Creil and Compiegne, flinging away human life as 
though it were but rubbish for death-pits. The prize 
of Paris, Paris the great and beautiful, seemed to be 
within their grasp. 

It was their intention to smash their way into it by 
this western entry and then to skin it alive. Holding 
this city at ransom, it was their idea to force France to 

330 



FLIGHT OF A MILLION WOMEN 



her knees under threat of making a vast and desolate 
ruin of all those palaces and churches and noble build- 
ings in which the soul of French history is enshrined. 

I am not saying these things from rumor and hearsay, 
I am writing from the evidence of my own eyes after 
traveling several hundreds of miles in France along 
the main strateg- 
ical Hues, grim 
sentinels guard- 
ing the last bar- 
riers to that ap- 
proaching death 
which was sweep- 
ing on its way 
through France 
to the rich har- 
vest of Paris. 

There was only 
one thing to do 
to escape from 
the menace of 
this death. By 
all the ways open, 
by any way, the 
population of 

Paris emptied itself like rushing rivers of humanity 
along all the lines which promised anything like safety. 

Only those stayed behind to whom Ufe means very 
little away from Paris and who if death came desired 
to die in the city of their life. 

Again I write from what I saw and to tell the honest 
truth from what I suffered, for the fatigue of this 

331 




The Anxious Hour. 



FLIGHT OF A MILLION WOMEN 

hunting for facts behind the screen of war is exhausting 
to all but one's moral strength, and even to that. 

I found myself in the midst of anew and extraor- 
dinary activity of the French and Enghsh armies. 
Regiments were being rushed up to the center of the 
allied forces toward Creil, Montdidier, and Noyon. 

This great movement continued for several days, 
putting to a severe test the French railway system, 
which is so wonderfully organized that it achieved 
this mighty transportation of troops with clockwork 
regularity. Working to a time-table dictated by some 
great brain in the headquarters of the French army, 
there were calculated with perfect precision the con- 
ditions of a network of lines on which troop trains 
might be run to a given point. It was an immense 
victory of organization, and a movement which 
heartened one observer at least to believe that the Ger- 
man death-blow would again be averted. 

HEROIC EFFORTS OF FRENCH SOLDIERS 

I saw regiment after regiment entraining. Men 
from the Southern Provinces, speaking the patois of 
the South; men from the Eastern Departments whom 
I had seen a month before, at the beginning of the war, 
at phalons and Epernay and Nancy, and men from 
the southwest and center of France, in garrisons 
along the Loire. They were all in splendid spirits 
and utterly undaunted by the rapidity of the German 
advance. 

"It is nothing, my little one," said a dirty, unshaved 
gentleman with the laughing eyes of a D'Artagnan; 
''we shall bite their heads off. These brutal 'bosches' 
332 



FLIGHT OF A MILLION WOMEN 

are going to put themselves in a 'guet-apens/ a veritable 
death-trap. We shall have them at last." 

Many of them had fought at Longwy and along the 
heights of the Vosges. The youngest of them had 
bristling beards, their blue coats with turned-back flaps 
were war-worn and flanked with the dust of long 
marches; their red trousers were sloppy and stained, 
but they had not forgotten how to laugh, and the 
gallantry of their spirits was a joy to see. 

They are very proud, these French soldiers, of 
fighting side by side with their old foes. The English 
now, after long centuries of strife, from Edward, the 
Black Prince, to Wellington, are their brothers-in-arms 
upon the battle-fields, and because I am English they 
offered me their cigarettes and made me one of them. 
But I realized even then that the individual is of no 
account in this inhuman business of war. 

It is only masses of men that matter, moved by 
common obedience at the dictation of mysterious far- 
off powers, and I thanked Heaven that masses of men 
were on the move rapidly in vast numbers and in the 
right direction to support the French lines which had 
fallen back from Amiens a few hours before I left that 
town, and whom I had followed in their retirement,' 
back and back, with the English always strengthening 
their left, but retiring with them almost to the outskirts 
of Paris itself. 

Only this could save Paris — the rapid strengthening 
of the allied front by enormous reserves strong enough 
to hold back the arrow-shaped battering ram of the 
enemy's main army. 

Undoubtedly the French headquarters staff was 

333 



FLIGHT OF A MILLION WOMEN 

working heroically and with fine intelligence to save 
the situation at the very gates of Paris. The country 
was being swept absolutely clean of troops in all parts 
of France, where they had been waiting as reserves. 

It was astounding to me to see, after those three 
days of rushing troop trains and of crowded stations 
not large enough to contain the regiments, how an 
air of profound solitude and peace had taken posses- 
sion of all these routes. 

In my long journey through and about France and 
circling round Paris I found myself wondering some- 
times whether all this war had not been a dreadful 
illusion without reality, and a transformation had 
taken place, startling in its change, from military tur- 
moil to rural peace. 

Dijon was emptied of its troops. The road to 
Chalons was deserted by all but fugitives. The great 
armed camp at Chalons itself had been cleared out 
except for a small garrison. The troops at Tours had 
gone northward to the French center. All our English 
reserves had been rushed up to the front from Havre 
and Rouen. 

There was only one deduction to be drawn from this 
great, swift movement — the French and English lines 
had been supported by every available battalion to save 
Paris from its menace of destruction, to meet the 
weight of the enemy's metal by a force strong enough 
to resist its mighty mass. 

GERMANS BALKED OF THEIR PRIZE 

It was still possible that the Germans might be 
smashed on their left wing, hurled back to the west 
334 



FLIGHT OF A MILLION WOMEN 

between Paris and the sea, and cut off from their line 
of communications. It was undoubtedly this impending 
peril which scared the enemy's headquarters staff 
and upset all its calculations. They had not antic- 
ipated the rapidity of the supporting movement 
of the allied armies, and at the very gates of 
Paris they saw themselves balked of their prize, the 
greatest prize of the war, by the necessity of changing 
front. 

To do them justice, they realized instantly the new 
order of things, and with quick and marvelous decision 
did not hesitate to alter the direction of their main 
force. Instead of proceeding to the west of Paris they 
swung round steadily to the southeast in order to 
keep their armies away from the enveloping move- 
m^ent of the French and English and drive their 
famous wedge-like formation southward for the 
purpose of dividing the allied forces of the west from 
the French army of the east> The miraculous had 
happened, and Paris, for a little time at least, was 
unmolested. 

After wandering along the westerly and southerly 
roads I started for Paris when thousands and scores of 
thousands were flying from it. At that time I believed, 
as all France believed, that in a few hours German 
shells would be crashing across the fortifications of the 
city and that Paris the beautiful would be Paris the 
infernal. It needed a good deal of resolution on my 
part to go deliberately to a city from w^hich the popu- 
lation was fleeing, and I confess quite honestly that I 
had a nasty sensation in the neighborhood of my waist- 
coat buttons at the thought. 

335. 



FLIGHT OF A MILLION WOMEN 

SIXTY MILES OF FUGITIVES 

Along the road from Tours to Paris there were 
sixty unbroken miles of people — on my honor, I do 
not exaggerate, but write the absolute truth. They 
were all people who had despaired of breaking through 
the dense masses of their fellow-citizens camped around 
the railway stations, and had decided to take the roads 
as the only way of escape. 

The vehicles were taxicabs, for which the rich paid 
fabulous prices; motor cars which had escaped military 
requisition, farmers' carts laden with several families 
and piles of household goods, shop carts drawn by 
horses already tired to the point of death because of the 
weight of the people who crowded behind, pony traps 
and governess carts. 

Many persons, well dressed and belonging obviously 
to well-to-do bourgeoisie, were wheeling barrows like 
costers, but instead of trundling cabbages were pushing 
forward sleeping babies and little children, who seemed 
on the first stage to find new amusement and excitement 
in the journey from home; but for the most part they 
trudged along bravely, carrying their babies and hold- 
ing the hands of their little ones. 

They were of all classes, rank and fortune being 
annihilated by the common tragedy. Elegant women 
whose beauty is known in Paris salons, whose frivolity, 
perhaps, in the past was the main purpose of their life, 
were now on a level with the peasant mothers of 
the French suburbs and with the ''midinettes" of Mont- 
martre, and their courage did not fail them so quickly. 

I looked into many proud, brave faces of these 
delicate women, walking in high-heeled shoes, all too 
336 



FLIGHT OF A MILLION WOMEN 

frail for the hard, dusty roadways. They belonged to 
the same race and breed as those ladies who defied 
death with fine disdain upon the scaffold of the guillo- 
tine in the great Revolution. 

They were leaving Paris now, not because of any 
fears for themselves — I believe they were fearless — but 
because they had decided to save the little sons and 
daughters of soldier fathers. 

This great army in retreat was made up of every type 
familiar in Paris. 

Here were women of the gay world, poor creatures 
whose painted faces had been washed with tears, and 
whose tight skirts and white stockings were never made 
for a long march down the highways of France. 

Here also were thousands of those poor old ladies 
who live on a few francs a week in the top attics of the 
Paris streets which Balzac knew; they had fled from their 
poor sanctuaries and some of them were still carr^dng 
cats and canaries, as dear to them as their own lives. 

There was one young woman who walked with a pet 
monkey on her shoulder while she carried a bird in a 
golden cage. Old men, who remembered 1870, gave 
their arms to old ladies to whom they had made love 
when the Prussians were at the gates of Paris then. 

It Vv^as pitiful to see these old people now hobbling 
along together — ^pitiful, but beautiful also, because 
of their lasting love. 

Young boy students, with ties as black as their hats 
and rat-tail hair, marched in small companies of 
comrades, singing brave songs, as though they had no 
fear in their hearts, and very little food, I think, in 
their stomachs. 
22 337 



FLIGHT OF A MILLION WOMEN 

Shopgirls and concierges, city clerks, old aristocrats, 
young boys and girls, who supported grandfathers and 
grandmothers and carried new-born babies and gave 
pick-a-back rides to little brothers and sisters, came 
along the way of retreat. 

TERROR IN EYES 

Each human being in the vast torrent of life will 
have an unforgettable story of adventure to tell if life 
remains. As a novelist I should have been glad to 
get their narratives along this road for a great story 
of suffering and strange adventure, but there was no 
time for that and no excuse. 

When I met many of them they were almost beyond 
the power of words. The hot sun of this September 
had beaten down upon them — scorching them as in 
the glow of molten metal. Their tongues clave to their 
mouths with thirst. 

Some of them had that wild look in their eyes which 
is the first sign of the delirium of thirst and fatigue. 

Nothing to eat or drink could be found on the way 
from Paris. The little roadside cafes had been cleared 
out by the preceding hordes.. 

Unless these people carried their own food and drink 
they could have none except of the charity of their 
comrades in misfortune, and that charity has exceeded 
all other acts of heroism in this war. Women gave 
their last biscuit, their last little drop of A\ine, to poor 
mothers whose children were famishing with thirst and 
hunger; peasant women fed other women's babies 
when their own were satisfied. 

It was a tragic road. At every mile of it there were 

338 



FLIGHT OF A MILLION WOMEN 

people who had fainted on the roadside and poor old 
men and women who could go no farther, but sat on 
the banks below the hedges, weeping silently or bidding 
younger ones go forward and leave them to their fate. 
Young women who had stepped out jauntily at first 
were so footsore and lame that they limped along with 
lines of pain about their lips and eyes. 

Many of the taxicabs, bought at great prices, and 
many of the motor cars had broken down as I passed, 
and had been abandoned by their owners, who had 
decided to v/alk. Farmers' carts had bolted into 
ditches and lost their wheels. Wheelbarrows, too 
heavy to be trundled, had been tilted up, with all their 
household goods spilled into the roadway, and the 
children had been carried farther, until at last darkness 
came, and their only shelter was a haystack in a field 
under the harvest moon. 

For days also I have been wedged up with fugitives 
in railway trains more dreadful than the open roads, 
stifling in their heat and heart-racking in their cargoes 
of misery. Poor women have wept hysterically clasping 
my hand, a stranger's hand, for comfort in their 
wretchedness and weakness. Yet on the whole they 
have shown amazing courage, and, after their tears, 
have laughed at their own breakdown, and, always 
the children of France have been superb, so that again 
and again I have wondered at the gallantry with which 
they endured this horror. Young boys have revealed 
the heroic strain in them and have played the part of 
men in helping their mothers. And yet, when I came at 
last into Paris against all this tide of retreat, it seemed 
a needless fear that had driven these people away. 

339 



FLIGHT OF A MILLION WOMEN 

PARIS THE BEAUTIFUL 

Then I passed long lines of beautiful little villas on 
the Seine side, utterly abandoned among their trees 
and flowers. A solitary fisherman held his line above 
the water as though all the world were at peace, and in 
a field close to the fortifications which I expected to see 
bursting with shells, an old peasant bent above the 
furrows and planted cabbages. Then, at last, I walked 
through the streets of Paris and found them strangely 
quiet and tranquil. 

The people I met looked perfectly calm. There were 
a few children playing in the gardens of Champs 
Elys^es and under the Arc de Triomphe symbolical of 
the glory of France. 

I looked back upon the beauty of Paris all golden 
in the light of the setting sun, with its glinting spires 
and white gleaming palaces and rays of light flashing 
in front of the golden trophies of its monuments. Paris 
was still unbroken. No shell had come shattering into 
this city of splendor, and I thanked Heaven that for a 
little while the peril had passed. 



340 



CHAPTER XXIX 
FACING DEATH IN THE TRENCHES 

CAVE-DWELLING THE LOT OF MODERN SOLDIERS — • 

GERMANS HAVE LEARNED MUCH STANDARDIZED 

MODEL FRENCH STUDY OF GERMAN METHODS 

*' COMFORTS OF HOMe" BRITISH REFUGES IN 

NORTHERN FRANCE " PICNICKING" IN THE OPEN 

AIR RAVAGES OF ARTILLERY FIRE THE COMMON 

ENEMY, THE WEATHER WHY COOKS WEAR IRON 

CROSSES "putting ONE OVEr" ON THE RUSSIANS. 

"OTHER times, other manners" applies as accurately 
to the battle-field as it does elsewhere. The cavalry 
charge is nearly extinct, mass formation is going, 
hand-to-hand conflict is rarely found, and now, it 
appears, the old-fashioned and romantic bivouac is no 
more. Trench-fighting has been carried on to such an 
extent in France and Belgium, and Poland, that the 
open camp, with its rows of little tents, outposts, and 
sentry guard, becomes almost a forgotten picture of 
warfare. Doubtless the military schools of the future 
will make provision for special instruction in the 
construction of commodious caverns on the battle- 
field, safe, warm, and containing all the comforts of a 
barrack. 

The modern warrior, like a mole, fives under ground 
and displays his greatest activity at night. With the 
coming of subterranean tvarfare, as trench-fighting 

341 



FACING DEATH IN THE TRENCHES 

can be appropriately called, great armies have had to 
adopt unique methods. They have been compelled 
to build peculiar little forts — for a trench is a fort, in 
fact — wherever their soldiers meet the enemy. In 
consequence these rectangular excavations have been 
improved far beyond their original outline. 

The first trench was nothing more nor less than a 
hole in the ground, deep enough to protect a man 
kneeling, standing, or sitting, as the case might be. 
Before the advent of the modern rifle and modern 
cannon, these defenses, with several feet of loose earth 
thrown up in front of them, served admirably. In 
those days the question of head-cover was of minor 
importance; today a protective roofing is the sine qua 
non of any well-constructed trench. Early in the 
European war it was discovered that the trench 
offered the safest haven from the bursting shells of the 
enemy's field artillery. To all intents and purposes, 
shrapnel, or, as its inventor termed it, the man-ldlling 
projectile — is practically harmless in its effect upon 
entrenched troops. Unless a shell can be placed 
absolutely within the two-feet wide excavation it 
wastes its destructive powers on the inoffensive earth 
and air. This has led to a modification of artillery 
methods, which, in turn, compels the elaboration of 
the trench and emphasizes the importance of head- 
cover. 

GERMANS HAVE LEARNED MUCH 

''The history of the great war," to quote from a 
French paper, ''will show, among other things, how 
the Germans profited by the lessons of recent conflicts. 
342 



FACING DEATH IN THE TRENCHES 

The South African, the Russo-Japanese, and the 
Balkan wars were studied minutely by them, and their 
particular preparations, their tactics, and their artifices 
result from the knowledge thus acquired. They learned 
much, especially, as regards the formation of trenches. 

''After 1870 we confined ourselves to three regula> 
tion types of trenches: for men prone, kneeling, and 
standing. While in training, our soldiers were taught 
how to take shelter momentarily between advances, 
by digging up the soil a little and lying flat behind the 
smallest of mounds. They were instructed, moreover, 
how to protect themselves from the enemy's fire by 
propping up their knapsacks in front of them. This 
meant insufiicient protection, and an extremely danger- 
ous visibility, since the foe, by simply counting the 
number of knapsacks, could know the strength opposed 
to him. To insure the making of such shelter, a French 
company was equipped with eighty picks and eighty 
spades; that is, 160 tools for 250 men. These tools 
were fixed on to the knapsacks; and it took some time 
to bring them into use." 

The German methods for defensive and offensive 
trench-making are quite different. Each man has a 
tool of his own, which is fixed on to the scabbard of 
his sword-bayonet. When occasion for fighting arises, 
the line conceals itself, and, as soon as it is engaged, 
it prepares for possible retreat, making strong positions 
assuring an unrelenting defensive and counter-attacks. 

STANDARDIZED MODEL 

It is on these sound principles that all the German 
fighting-lines are organized, on a more or less stan- 

343 



FACING DEATH IN THE TRENCHES 

dardized model. The fighting-lines consist generally 
of one, two, or three lines of shelter-trenches lying 
parallel, measuring twenty or twenty-five inches in 
width, and varying in length according to the number 
they hold; the trenches are joined together by zigzag 
approaches and by a line of reinforced trenches (armed 
with machine guns), which are almost completely 
proof against rifle, machine gun, or gun fire. The 
ordinary German trenches are almost invisible from 
350 yards away, a distance which permits a very deadly 
fire. It is easy to realize that if the enemy occupies 
three successive lines and a line of reinforced entrench- 
ments, the attacking line is likely, at the lowest esti- 
mate, to be decimated during an advance of 650 yards — 
by rifle-fire at a range of 350 yards' distance, and by the 
extremely quick fire of the machine guns, which can 
each deliver from 300 to 600 bullets a minute with 
absolute precision. In the field-trench, it is obvious, 
a soldier enjoys far greater security than he would if 
merely prone behind his knapsack in an excavation 
barely fifteen inches deep. He has merely to stoop 
down a little to disappear below the level of the ground 
and be immune from infantry fire; moreover, his 
machine guns can fire without endangering him. In 
addition, this stooping position brings the man's 
knapsack on a level with his helmet, thus forming 
some protection against shrapnel and shell-splinters. 

At the back of the German trenches, shelters are 
dug for non-commissioned officers and for the com- 
mander of the unit. The latter 's shelter is connected 
with the communication trench; the others are not. 
If one adds that the bank, or, rather, the earth that is 

344 



FACING DEATH IN THE TRENCHES 




«>»A^«lT?»»--gg»»- t 



Section 2 



Jed {'on J 




Jedion of^he shelter pf 
He chief of t/ie unit 



V 

: • Vnom': iil/minf i j I 

>i" f"" X — 



•.Rest] mrr>r\ 




•*• - 



ISO metres ietiteen fDeanupj 
of macliine-funi. 

Section of a rest-'room^ 




Reinforced Trenches. 

Upper view: Details of roofs, loop-holes, and the form of the excavations. 
Lower left-hand view: Vertical section of trenches and shelters. Lower 
right-hand view: A plan and section of trenches and rest-room. 

dug from the trenches and spread out in front, extends 
for five or six yards, and is covered with grass, or 
appropriate vegetation, it will be recognized that the 

345 



FACING DEATH IN THE TRENCHES 

works concealing the German lines can be seen only 
when a near approach is made to them. 

As to reinforced trenches, the drawings show 
clearly their conception and arrangement. They are 
proof against ordinary bullets and shrapnel. Only 
percussion-shells are able to destroy them and to 
decimate their defenders. The interior details of the 
trenches vary according to the ingenuity and spare 
time of the occupants and the nature of the ground. 

FRENCH STUDY OF GERMAN METHODS 

The whole system, that of the rest-rooms more 
especially, is designed to give the men the maximum of 
comfort and security. Doors and wooden shutters 
wrenched from deserted houses are used for covers, or 
else turf-covered branches. 

Ever since the outbreak of the war, the French troops 
in Lorraine, after severe experiences, realized rapidly 
the advantages of the German trenches, and began to 
study those they had taken gloriously. Officers, non- 
commissioned officers, and men of the Engineers were 
straightway detached in every unit to teach the 
infantry how to construct similar shelters. The 
education was quick, and very soon they had completed 
the work necessary for the protection of all. The 
tools of the enemy ''casualties," the spades and picks 
left behind in deserted villages, were all gladly piled 
on to the French soldiers' knapsacks, to be carried will- 
ingly by the very men who used to grumble at being 
loaded with even the smallest regulation tool . As soon as 
night had set in on the occasion of a lull in the fighting, 
the digging of the trenches was begun. Sometimes, in 
346 



FACING DEATH IN THE TRENCHES 

the darkness, the men of each fighting nation — less 
than 500 yards away from their enemy — would hear 
the noise of the workers of the foe : the sounds of picks 
and axes; the officers' words of encouragement; and 
tacitly they would agree to an armistice during which 
to dig shelters from which, in the morning, they would 
dash out, to fight once more. 

''comforts of home" 

Commodious, indeed, are some of the present trench 
barracks, if we may beheve the letters from the front. 
One French soldier writes: 

"In really up-to-date entrenchments you may find 
kitchens, dining-rooms, bedrooms, and even stables. 
One regiment has first class cow-sheds. One day a 
whimsical 'piou-piou,' finding a cow wandering about 
in the danger zone, had the bright idea of finding 
shelter for it in the trenches. The example was quickly 
followed, and at this moment the — th Infantry possess 
an underground farm, in which fat kine, well cared 
for, give such quantities of milk that regular distribu- 
tions of butter are being made — and very good butter, 
too." 

But this is not all. An officer writes home a tale of 
yet another one of the comforts of home added to the 
equipment of the trenches: 

"We are clean people here. Thanks to the ingenuity 

of , we are able to take a warm bath every day 

from ten to twelve. We call this teasing the 
'bosches,' for this bathing-establishment of the 
latest type is fitted up — would you believe it? — in 
the trenches!" 

347 



FACING DEATH IN THE TRENCHES 

BRITISH REFUGES IN NORTHERN FRANCE 

Describing trenches occupied by the British in their 
protracted '^ siege-warfare" in Northern France along 
and to the north of the'"Aisne Valley, a British officer 
wrote: ''In the firing-line the men sleep and obtain 
shelter in the dugouts they have hollowed or 'under- 
cut' in the side of the trenches. These refuges are 
slightly raised above the bottom of the trench, so as 
to remain dry in wet weather. The floor of the trench 
is also sloped for purposes of draining. Some trenches 
are provided with head-cover, and others with overhead 
cover, the latter, of course, giving protection from the 
weather as well as from shrapnel balls and splinters of 
shells. ... At all points subject to shell-fire access 
to the firing-line from behind is provided by com- 
munication-trenches. These are now so good that it 
is possible to cross in safety the fire-swept zone to the 
advanced trenches from the billets in villages, the 
bivouacs in quarries, or the other places where the 
headquarters of units happen to be." 

"picnicking" in the open air 

A cavalry subaltern gave the following account of 
life in the trenches: "Picnicking in the open air, day 
and night (you never see a roof now), is the only real 
method of existence. There are loads of straw to 
bed down on, and everyone sleeps like a log, in turn, 
even with shrapnel bursting within fifty yards." 

RAVAGES OF ARTILLERY FIRE 

One English officer described the ravages of modern 
artillery fire^, not only upon all men, animals and 

348 



FACING DEATH IN THE TRENCHES 

buildings within its zone, but upon the very face of 
nature itself: "In the trenches crouch lines of men, 
in brown or gray or blue, coated with mud, unshaven, 
hollow-eyed with the continual strain." 

''The fighting is now taking place over ground where 
both sides have for weeks past been excavating in all 
directions," said another letter from the front, "until 
it has become a perfect lab3a-inth. A trench runs 
straight for a considerable distance, then it suddenly 
forks in three or four directions. One branch merely 
leads into a ditch full of water, used in drier weather 
as a means of communication; another ends abruptly 
in a cul-de-sac, probably an abandoned sap-head ; the 
third winds on, leading into galleries and passages 
further forward. 

"Sometimes where new ground is broken the spade 
turns up the long-buried dead, ghastly relics of former 
fights, and on all sides the surface of the earth is 
ploughed and furrowed by fragments of shell and bombs 
and distorted by mines. Seen from a distance, this 
apparently confused mass of passages, crossing and 
recrossing one another, resembles an irregular grid- 
iron. 

"The fife led by the infantry on both sides at close 
quarters is a strange, cramped existence, with death 
always near, either by means of some missile from above 
or some mine explosion from beneath — a life which has 
one dull, monotonous background of mud and water. 
Even when there is but little fighting the troops are 
kept hard at work strengthening the existing defenses, 
constructing others, and improvising the shelter impera- 
tive in such weather." 

349 



FACING DEATH IN THE TRENCHES 

THE COMMON ENEMY, THE WEATHER 

But it is not the guns or cannon of the enemy that 
affect the spirits of the soldiers. It is the weather. A 
week of alternate rain and snow, when the ill-drained 
dugouts are half-filled with a freezing viscid mud; 
when, day after day, the feet are numbed by the frost 
until all sensation in them is deadened; when the 
coarse, scanty ration is refused by the tortured stomach 
— then it is that the spirits of the stoutest falter. Let 
the enemy attack as he will, and he must fail. It is 
only in fighting that the men find an outlet for their 
rancor. 

More than thirty years ago a well-known German 
general declared that a book on ''Seasonal Tactics" 
might as properly be written as those on the tactics of 
weapons, and of geographical conditions; and in a 
recent issue of the Deutsche Revue an unsigned 
article by a veteran of the Franco-Prussian war re- 
counts the difficulties that arise when the Frost King 
holds sway. "To begin with, the precious hours of 
daylight are much fewer, and even these may be 
shortened by overcast skies and heavy fogs. Soft 
snow and mud seriously impede marching and at times 
it is impossible to take cross-country cuts, even single 
horsemen having great difficulty in crossing the frozen 
ridges of plowed fields or stubble. Moreover, even 
regular highways may become so shppery that they 
endanger both man and horse, and in hilly country 
such conditions make it necessary to haul heavy artil- 
lery up steep ascents by man-power. Cold head- winds 
also greatly impede progress. 

''The necessity of bringing the troops under cover 



FACING DEATH IN THE TRENCHES 

enforces long marches at the end of the day's work, and 
again at its beginning, and therefore makes extra 
demands on energy. . . . The early dark hinders the 
offense from carrying out its plans completely and from 
utilizing any advantage won by following it up ener- 
getically. Night battles become frequent. The de- 
fense seeks to regain v/hat it has lost by day, the offense 
to make use of the long nights to win what it could not 
achieve in the daytime. Then, too, the need of getting 
warmed-up makes the troops more enterprising." 

All sorts of constructive work — ^fortification building, 
the erection of stations for telegraphs, telephones and 
wireless, etc. — is naturally much more difficult in 
frozen ground. General von der Goltz of the German 
Army is said to have recommended many years ago 
that in view of possible winter campaigns provision 
should be made in quantity of warm winter clothing, 
materials for the building of barracks, making double 
tents, etc. Another important preventive of suffering 
and the consequent diminished efficiency is to provide 
plenty of good hot food for the men. 

WHY COOKS WEAR IRON CROSSES 

''There isn't anything heroic about cooks," wrote 
Herbert Corey in the New York Globe, ''and when 
things go wrong one either apprehends a cook as 
chasing a waiter with a bread-knife or giving way to 
tears." Yet the German army contains many a cook 
whose expansive apron is decorated with the Iron 
Cross. "And the Iron Cross," Mr. Corey reminds 
us, "is conferred for one thing only — for 100 per cent 
courage." 

351 



FACING DEATH IN THE TRENCHES 

" 'They've earned it,' said the man who had seen 
them. 'They are the bravest men in the Kaiser's 
four millions. I've seen generals salute greasy, 
paunchy, sour-looking army cooks.' 

''The cook's job is to feed the men of his company. 
Each German company is followed, or preceded, by a 
field-kitchen on wheels. Sometimes the fires are kept 
going while the device trundles along. The cook stands 
on the foot-board and thumps his bread. He is always 
the first man up in the morning and the last to sleep 
at night. 

"When that company goes into the trenches the 
cook stays behind. There is no place for a field- 
kitchen in a four-foot trench. But these men in the 
trench must be fed. The Teuton insists that all 
soldiers must be fed — but especially the men in the 
trench. The others may go hungry, but these must 
have tight belts. Upon their staying power may depend 
the safety of an army. 

"So, as the company can not go to the cook, the 
cook goes to the company. When meal-hour comes 
he puts a yoke on his shoulders and a cook's cap on 
his head and, warning the second cook as to what will 
happen if he lets the fires go out, puts a bucketful of 
hot veal stew on either end of the yoke and goes to his 
men. Maybe the trench is under fire. No matter. 
His men are in that trench and must be fed. 

"Sometimes the second cook gets his step right here. 
Sometimes the apprentice cook — the dish-washer — 
is summoned to pick up the cook's yoke and refill the 
spilled buckets and tramp steadily forward to the line. 
Sometimes the supply of assistant cooks, even, runs 
352 



o ^ 






S.fD 



p o t^ 



oi? 





Saitinq aku Mining the Enemy's Tbencues. 
When the hostile trenches are near together an open ^ig/'^g trench 
is dug to a point very close to the enemy's line, then a covered gallery is 
excavated to a point almost under the hostile trench. 





C 



- -iiaUki?' -.J tUt} t • 









^"^mi*- 



ORCANISATIOM or DEfEMCSS BY JOINING CRATER WITH SHELL-HOLES 



tJt^::A.-Jli- 




-IP OF CRATER 



I SECTION OFdAULtRY 



Gaining a Foot of Ground Peb Houb. 
Here a charge of explosive is placed and fired from a distance by an 
electric wire. At the same instant the men charge over the ground and 
occupy the ruined trench of the enemy. {II. L. News oopr.) 




The Bombardment of tuk East Coast of England. 
This scene, painted in Hartlepool, shows the effect of a bursting German 
shell in the imfortified British town. Several women and many other 
civilians were killed by the German raiders. 



FACING DEATH IN THE TRENCHES 

short. But the men in the trenches always get their 
food. 

*' 'That's why so many cooks in the German Army 
have Iron Crosses dangUng from their breasts/ said 
the man who knows. ' No braver men ever hved. The 
man in the trench can duck his head and hght his 
pipe and be relatively safe. No fat cook yoked to two 
buckets of veal stew ever can be safe as he marches 
down the trench.' " 

''putting one over" on the RUSSIANS 

Granville Fortescue, who visited the Russian trenches 
in Poland, related in the Illustrated London News a 
story of how the Germans, to use a slang phrase, "put 
one over" on the too-confiding Russians. "This 
happened," he wrote, "at a portion of the line w^here 
the positions ran so close that the men could com- 
municate by shouting. It was around Christmas, and 
the Germans invited the Russians to come over for a 
hot cup of new coffee just received from home. The 
Russians replied to this invitation, shouting: 'Come 
over and try our tea. It's a special gift from the 
Czar.' 

' "The Germans then put up the white flag, and said 
that they would send over fifteen men to try the tea 
if the Russians would send over the same number to 
sample their coffee. The plan was carried out. When 
the fifteen Germans appeared in the Russian trench, 
the hosts remarked to one another that if these were a 
sample the enemy would not hold out long. They were 
a sick-looking lot. Suddenly the Germans pulled down 
their white flag and commenced firing. Then the 
23 353 



FACING DEATH IN THE TRENCHES 

Russians found that they had exchanged fifteen good 
soldiers for fifteen typhus patients. 

''It is easy to beUeve that the Russian soldier could 
be imposed upon in this way. Although extremely 
courageous, he is very simple-minded with it all, and 
certainly trusting. He is a splendid physical specimen. 
In the trail of trench warfare this is the great desidera- 
tum. Then, the Russians of the type that are drafted 
into the army have all their Ufe been accustomed to 
privation and exposure. For this reason they are the 
only troops that I have seen who can stick six days and 
nights on end in a trench, under constant small arms 
and shell fire, with the temperature below zero, and 
after a day's rest be as good as ever. The Russians 
never grumble." 



354 



CHAPTER XXX 
A VIVID PICTURE OF WAR 

THE BATTLE OF NEUVE CHAPELLE — A SURPRISE 

PREPARED "hell BROKE LOOSE " A HORRIBLE 

THIRTY-FIVE MINUTES TRENCHES FILLED WITH 

DEAD HOARSE SHOUTS AND THE GROANS OF THE 

wounded indescribable mass of ruins 

"smeared with dust and blood." 

ONE OF the most vivid word-pictures of what war 
means in all its horror was told by an eye-witness of 
the battle of Neuve Chapelle in which the British 
soldiers dislodged the Germans from an important 
position. He said: 

''The dawn, which broke reluctantly through a 
veil of clouds en the morning of Wednesday, March 10, 
1915, seemed as any other to the Germans behind the 
white and blue sandbags in their long Une of trenches 
curving in a hemicycle about the battered village of 
Neuve Chapelle. For five months they had remained 
undisputed masters of the positions they had here 
wrested from the British in October. Ensconced in 
their comfortably-arranged trenches with but a thin 
outpost in their fire trenches, they had watched day 
succeed day and night succeed night without the least 
variation from the monotony of trench warfare, the 
intermittent bark of the m.achine guns— rat-tat-tat- 
tat-tat— and the perpetual rattle of rifle fire, with here 

and there a bomb, and now and then an exploded mine. 

355 



A VIVID PICTURE OF WAR 

A SURPRISE PREPARED 

"For weeks past the German airmen had grown 
strangely shy. On this Wednesday morning none were 
aloft to spy out the strange doings which as dawn broke 
might have been descried on the desolate roads 
behind the British hnes. 

''From ten o'clock of the preceding evening endless 
files of men marched silently down the roads leading 
towards the German positions through Laventie and 
Richebourg St. Vaast, poor shattered villages of the 
dead where months of incessant bombardment have 
driven away the last inhabitants and left roofless 
houses and rent roadways. . . . 

''Two days before, a quiet room, where Nelson's 
Prayer stands on the mantel-shelf, saw the ripening of 
the plans that sent these sturdy sons of Britain's four 
kingdoms marching all through the night. Sir John 
French met the army corps commanders and unfolded 
to them his plans for the offensive of the British Army 
against the German line at Neuve Chapelle. 

"The onslaught was to be a surprise. That was its 
essence. The Germans were to be battered with 
artillery, then rushed before they recovered their wits. 
We had thirty-six clear hours before us. Thus long, it 
was reckoned (with complete accuracy as afterwards 
appeared), must elapse before the Germans, whose hne 
before us had been weakened, could rush up reinforce- 
ments. To ensure the enemy's being pinned down right 
and left of the 'great push,' an attack was to be de- 
livered north and south of the main thrust simulta- 
neously with the assault on Neuve Chapelle." 

After describing the impatience of the British 
356 



A VIVID PICTURE OF WAR 

soldiers as they awaited the signal to open the attack, 
and the actual beginning of the engagement, the narra- 
tor continues : 



HELL BROKE LOOSE 

"Then hell broke loose. With a mighty, hideous, 
screeching burst of noise, hundreds of guns spoke. The 
men in the front 
trenches were deaf- 
ened by the sharp 
reports of the 
field-guns spitting 
out their shells at 
close range to cut 
through the Ger- 
mans' barbed wire 
entanglements. In 
some cases the 
trajectory of these 
vicious missiles 
was so flat that 
they passed only a 
few feet above the 
British trenches. 
i "The din was 

continuous. An officer who had the curious idea 
of putting his ear to the ground said it was as 
though the earth were being smitten great blows 
with a Titan's hammer. After the first few shells 
had plunged screaming amid clouds of earth and 
dust into the German trenches, a dense pall of smoke 
bung over the German lines. The sickening fumes of 

357 




"There Is NoTHiNa to Report." 



A VIVID PICTURE OF WAR 

lyddite blew back into the British trenches. In some 
places the troops were smothered in earth and dust 
or even spattered with blood from the hideous frag- 
ments of human bodies that went hurtling through the 
air. At one point the upper half of a German officer, 
his cap crammed on his head, was blown into one of 
our trenches. 

A HORRIBLE THIRTY-FIVE MINUTES 

''Words will never convey any adequate idea of 
the horror of those five and thirty minutes. When 
the hands of officers' watches pointed to five minutes 
past eight, whistles resounded along the British lines. 
At the same moment the shells began to burst farther 
ahead, for, by previous arrangement, the gunners, 
lengthening their fuses, were ' lifting ' on to the village 
of Neuve Chapelle so as to leave the road open for our 
infantry to rush in and finish what the guns had begun. 

''The shells were now falling thick among the houses 
of Neuve Chapelle, a confused mass of buildings seen 
reddish through the pillars of smoke and flying earth 
and dust. At the sound of the whistle — ^alas for the 
bugle, once the herald of victory, now banished from 
the fray! — our men scrambled out of the trenches and 
hurried higgledy-piggledy into the open. Their officers 
were in front. Many, wearing overcoats and carrying 
rifles with fixed bayonets, closely resembled their men. 

TRENCHES FILLED WITH DEAD 

"It was from the center of our attacking line that 
the assault was pressed home soonest. The guns had 
done their work well. The trenches were blown to 
358 



A VIVID PICTURE OF WAR 

irrecognizable pits dotted with dead. The barbed 
wire had been cut like so much twine. Starting from 
the Rue Tilleloy the Lincolns and the Berkshires 
were off the mark first, with orders to swerve to right 
and left respectively as soon as they had captured the 
first line of trenches, in order to let the Royal Irish 
Rifles and the Rifle Brigade through to the village. 
The Germans left alive in the trenches, haff demented 
with fright, surrounded by a welter of dead and dying 
men, mostly surrendered. The Berkshires were opposed 
with the utmost gallantry by two German officers 
who had remained alone in a trench serving a machine 
gun. But the lads from Berkshire made their way into 
that trench and bayoneted the Germans where they 
stood, fighting to the last. The Lincolns, agaiast 
desperate resistance, eventually occupied their section 
of the trench and then waited for the Irishmen and the 
Rifle Brigade to come and take the village ahead of 
them. Meanwhile the second thirty-ninth Garhwalis 
on the right had taken their trenches with a rush and 
were away towards the village and the Biez Wood. 

HOARSE SHOUTS AND THE GROANS OF THE WOUNDED 

"Things had moved so fast that by the time the 
troops were ready to advance against the village the 
artillery had not finished its work. So, while the 
Lincolns and the Berks assembled the prisoners who 
were trooping out of the trenches in all directions, the 
infantry on whom devolved the honor of capturing the 
village, waited. One saw them standing out in the 
open, laughing and cracking jokes amid the terrific 
din made by the huge howitzer shells screeching over- 

359 



A VIVID PICTURE OF WAR 

head and bursting in the village, the rattle of machine 
guns all along the line, and the popping of rifles. Over 
to the right where the Garhwalis had been working 
with the bayonet, men were shouting hoarsely and 
wounded were groaning as the stretcher-bearers, all 
heedless of bullets, moved swiftlj/ to and fro over the 
shell-torn ground. 

''There was bloody work in the village of Neuve 
Chapelle. The capture of a place at the bayonet 
point is generally a grim business, in which instant, 
unconditional surrender is the only means by which 
bloodshed, a deal of bloodshed, can be prevented. 
If there is individual resistance here and there the 
attacking troops cannot discriminate. They must 
go through, slaying as they go such as oppose them 
(the Germans have a monopoly of the finishing-off 
of wounded men), otherwise the enemy's resistance 
would not be broken, and the assailants would be sniped 
and enfiladed from hastily prepared strongholds at 
half a dozen different points. 

INDESCRIBABLE MASS OF RUINS 

''The village was a sight that the men say they will 
never forget. It looked as if an earthquake had struck 
it. The published photographs do not give any idea 
of the indescribable mass of ruins to which our guns 
reduced it. The chaos is so utter that the very line 
of the streets is all but obliterated. 

"It was indeed a scene of desolation into which the 
Rifle Brigade — the first regiment to enter the village, 
I believe — traced headlong. Of the church only the 
bare shell remained, the interior lost to view beneath 
360 



1— ' J2. ^ , 



O 
W 

H 
?d 
O 
O 

w 
o 

w 

H 
W 
W 

> 

(-1 

CO 





Falling to Eabtd Like a Blazing Meteor. 
This stirring picture represents a German aeroplane of the type called 
Aviatik, beaten in a fight high up in the air by the famous French Aviator 
Garros, plunging to earth in flames, turning and turning like a falling star. 



A VIVID PICTURE OF WAR 

a gigantic mound of debris. The little churchyard 
was devastated, the very dead plucked from their 
graves, broken coffins and ancient bones scattered 
about amid the fresher dead, the slain of that morning — 
grey green forms asprawl athwart the tombs. Of all 
that once fair village but two things remained intact — 
two great crucifixes reared aloft, one in the churchyard, 
the other over against the chateau. From the cross 
that is the emblem of our faith the figure of Christ, 
yet intact though all pitted with bullet marks, looked 
down in mute agony on the slain in the village. 

'^ SMEARED WITH DUST AND BLOOD " 

*' The din and confusion were indescribable. Through 
the thick pall of shell smoke Germans were seen on all 
sides, some emerging half dazed from cellars and dug- 
outs, their hands above their heads, others dodging 
round the shattered houses, others firing from the 
windows, from behind carts, even from behind the 
overturned tombstones. Machine guns were firing 
from the houses on the outskirts, rapping out their 
nerve-racking note above the noise of the rifles. 

''Just outside the village there was a scene of tre- 
mendous enthusiasm. The Rifle Brigade, smeared 
with dust and blood, fell in with the Third Gurkhas 
with whom they had been brigaded in India. The 
little brown men were dirty but radiant. Kulm in 
hand they had very thoroughly gone through some 
houses at the cross-roads on the Rue du Bois and 
silenced a party of Germans who were making them- 
selves a nuisance there with some machine guns. 
Riflemen and Gurkhas cheered themselves hoarse." 

361 



CHAPTER XXXI 

HARROWING SCENES ALONG THE BATTLE 

LINES 

DRIVING BACK THE GERMANS UNDER FIRE ON 

THE FIRING LINE AMONG MANGLED HORSES AND 

MEN GERMAN LOSSES FRIGHTFUL DIXMUDE A 

PLACE OF DEATH AND HORROR. 

SOME IDEA of the ruin wrought day after day as 
the battle raged in Flanders may be gained from the 
occasional reports of war correspondents who shared 
the fortunes of battle. 

''The battle rages along the Yser with frightful 
destruction of life," wrote a correspondent of the 
London Daily News in October. *'Air engines, sea 
engines, and land engines death-sweep this desolate 
country, vertically, horizontally, and transversely. 
Through it the frail little human engines crawl and 
dig, walk and run, skirmishing, charging, and blunder- 
ing in little individual fights and tussles, tired and 
puzzled, ordered here and there, sleeping where they 
can, never washing, and dying unnoticed. A friend 
may find himself firing on a friendly force, and few 
are to blame. 

"Thursday the Germans were driven back over the 
Yser; Friday they secured a footing again, and Saturday 
they were again hurled back. Now a bridge blown 
up by one side is repaired by the other; it is again 
362 



HARROWING SCENES 



blown up by the first, or left as a death trap till the 
enemy is actually crossing. 

''Actions by armored trains, some of them the 
most reckless adventures, are attempted daily. Each 
day accumulates an unwritten record of individual 
daring feats, accepted as part of the daily work. Day 
by day our men 



vitas 



push out on 
these dangerous 
explorations, at- 
tacked by shell 
fire, in danger of 
cross-fire, dyna- 
mite, and am- 
buscades, bring- 
ing a priceless 
support to the 
threatened lines. 
As the armored 
train approaches 
the river under 
shell fire the car 
cracks with the 

constant thunder ^of guns aboard. It is amazing to 
see the angle at which the guns can be swung. 

''And overhead the airmen are busy venturing 
through fog and puffs of exploding shells to get one 
small fact of information. We used to regard the 
looping of the loop of the Germans overhead as a hare- 
brained piece of impudent defiance to our infantry fire. 
Now we know it means early trouble for the infantry. 

"Besides us, as we crawl up snuffing the lines hke 

363 




These Always Survive. 



HARROWING SCENES 



dogs on a scent, grim train-loads of wounded wait 
soundlessly in the sidings. Further up the line ambu- 
lances are coming slowly back. The bullets of machine 
guns begin to rattle on our armored coats. Shells 
we learned to disregard, but the machine gun is the 
master in this war. 

''Now we near the river at a flat country farm. 
The territory is scarred with trenches, and it is impos- 
sible to say at first who is in them, so incidental and 
separate are the fortunes of this riverside battle. The 
Germans are on our bank enfilading the lines of the 
Alhes' trenches. We creep up and the Germans come 
into sight out of the trenches, rush to the bank, and 
are scattered and mashed. The Allies follow with a 
fierce bayonet charge. 

''The Germans do not wait. They rush to the 
bridges and are swept away by the deadliest destroyer 
• of all, the machine gun. The bridge is blown up, but 
who can say by whom? Quicldy the train runs back, 

" 'A brisk day,' remarks the correspondent, 'Not 
so bad,' replies the officer. So the days pass." 

ON THE FIRING LINE 

Another correspondent who, accompanied by a son 
of the Belgian War Minister, M. de Broqueville, 
made a tour of the battleground in the Dixmude 
district wi^ote: 

"No pen could do justice to the grandeur and horror 
of the scene. As far as the eye could reach nothing 
could be seen but burning villages and bursting shells. 

"Arriving at the firing line, a terrible scene presented 
itself. The shell fire from the German batteries was 
364 



HARROWING SCENES 



so terrific that Belgian soldiers and French marines 
were continually being blown out of their dugouts and 
sent scattering to cover. Elsewhere, also, little groups 
of peasants were forced to flee because their cellars 
began to fall in. These unfortunates had to make their 
way as best they could on foot to the rear. They were 
frightened to death by the bursting shells, and the 
sight of crying children among them was most pa- 
thetic. 

''Dixmude was the objective of the German attack, 
and shells were bursting all over it, crashing among the 
roofs and blowing whole streets to pieces. From a 
distance of three miles we could hear them crashing 
down, but the town itself was invisible, except for the 
flames and the smoke and clouds rising above it. The 
Belgians had only a few field batteries, so that the 
enemy's howitzers simply dominated the field, and the 
infantry trenches around the town had to rely upon 
their own unaided efforts. 

AMONG MANGLED HORSES AND MEN 

''Our progress along the road was suddenly stopped 
by one of the most horrible sights I have ever seen. 
A heavy howitzer shell had fallen and burst right in 
the midst of a Belgian battery which was making its 
way to the front, causing terrible destruction. The 
mangled horses and men among the debris presented a 
shocking spectacle. 

^ ''Eventually, we got into Dixmude itself, and 
every time a shell came crashing among the roofs we 
thought our end had come. The Hotel de Ville (town 
hall) was a sad sight. The roof was completely riddled 

365 



HARROWING SCENES 



by shell, while inside was a scene of chaos. It was piled 
with loaves of bread, bicycles, and dead soldiers. 

''The battle redoubled in fury, and by seven o'clock 
in the evening Dixmude was a furnace, presenting a 
scene of terrible grandeur. The horizon was red 
with burning homes. 

''Our return journey was a melancholy one, owing 
to the constant trains of wounded that were passing." 

GERMAN LOSSES FRIGHTFUL 

"The German losses are frightful" wrote another 
correspondent. "Three meadows near Ostend are 
Leaped with dead. The wounded are now installed 
in private houses in Bruges, where large wooden sheds 
are being rushed up to receive additional injiu-ed. 
Thirty-seven farm wagons containing wounded, dying, 
and dead passed in one hour near Middelkerke." 

DIXMUDE A PLACE OF DEATH AND HORROR 

From Furnes, Belgium, members of the staff of the 
English hospital traveled to Dixmude to search for 
wounded men on the firing Hne. Philip Gibbs, of the 
London Daily Chronicle, who traveled with them in 
reporting his experiences, said: 

"I was in one of the ambulances, and Mr. Gleeson 
sat behind me in the narrow space between the 
stretchers. Over his shoulder he talked in a quiet 
voice of the job that lay before us. I was glad of that 
quiet voice, so placid in its courage. We went forward 
at what seemed to me a crawl, though I think it was a 
fair pace, shells bursting around us now on all sides, 
while shrapnel bullets sprayed the earth about us. 
366 



HARROWING SCENES 



It appeared to me an odd thing that we were still aHve. 
Then we came into Dixmude. 

"When I saw it for the first and last time it was a 
place of death and horror. The streets through which 
we passed were utterly deserted and wrecked from 
end to end, as though by an earthquake. Incessant 
explosions of shell fire crashed down upon the walls 
which stiU stood. Great gashes opened in the walls, 
which then toppled and fell. A roof came tumbling 
down with an appalling clatter. Like a house of cards 
blown by a puff of wind, a little shop suddenly collapsed 
into a mass of ruins. Here and there, further into the 
town, we saw living figures. They ran swiftly for a 
moment and then disappeared into dark caverns under 
toppling porticoes. They were Belgian soldiers. . . . 

''We stood on some steps, looking down into that 
cellar. It was a dark hole, illumined dimly by a 
lantern, I think. I caught sight of a little heap of 
huddled bodies. Two soldiers, still unwounded, dragged 
three of them out and handed them up to us. The 
work of getting those three men into the first ambulance 
seemed to us interminable; it was really no more than 
fifteen or twenty minutes. 

''I had lost consciousness of myself. Something 
outside myself, as it seemed, was saying that there was 
no way of escape; that it was monstrous to suppose 
that all these bursting shells would not smash the 
ambulance to bits and finish the agony of the wounded, 
and that death was very hideous. I remember thinking 
also how ridiculous it was for men to kill one another 
like this and to make such hells on earth." 



367 



CHAPTER XXXII 

WHAT THE MEN IN THE TRENCHES WRITE 

HOME 

SOBERING REALITIES OF BATTLE "WAR IS TER- 
RIBLE" THE COMMON ENEMY, DEATH "a WASTE- 
FUL war" "same pair of blue eyes" FIGHTING 

WITHOUT HATE. 

LIFE AT the front is not aU marching and fighting by 
any means: there arc long days and nights of waiting 
in which though it be 

"Theirs net to reason why" 

the soldiers have abundant time to reflect upon the 
grim fatality of war and the hideousness of the carnage. 
They are continually facing death, and though many of 
them, perhaps most of them, become inured to the 
sights of human slaughter, others cannot fail to be 
impressed by the stark, white faces of the fallen — friends 
and foes alike. Sights more horrible than perhaps 
they could have imagined are burned into their minds, 
never to be effaced. 

Naturally some of their reflections find expression 
in the letters home, when the soldier is more or less 
off guard. There we get an '' inside view" of the war 
which does much to offset the ruthlessness of rulers 
and restore one's faith in the essential humanity of 
men. 
368 



WHAT THE MEN WRITE HOME 

Only from the lips of soldiers, or from their pens 
when they snatch a few moments from the business 
of war to write to their people at home, come the 
most naively graphic accounts of trivial but illumi- 
nating incidents. Every war has thus its unknown, 
unhonored chroniclers, who send to their Uttle home 
circles narratives that for startling reahsm no highly 
paid special correspondent could surpass. If all 
these letters could be assembled and arranged they 
would form the most essentially human account of the 
Great War that it is possible to conceive. 

''war is terrible" 

The following letter, which refers to the fighting 
along the Aisne, was found on a German officer of the 
Seventh Reserve Corps: 

"Cerny, South of Laon, Sept. 14, 1914. 

''My dear Parents: Our corps has the task of 
holding the heights south of Cerny in all circum- 
stances until the fourteenth corps on our left flank 
can grip the enemy's flank. On our right are other 
corps. We are fighting with the Enghsh Guards, 
Highlanders, and Zouaves. The losses on both sides 
have been enormous. For the most part this is due 
to the too briUiant French artillery. 

''The English are marvelously trained in making 
use of ground. One never sees them, and one is 
constantly under fire. The French airmen perform 
wonderful feats. We cannot get rid of them. As 
soon as an airman has flown over us, ten minutes 
later we get their shrapnel fire in our positions. We 
have Httle artillery; without it we cannot get forward. 

24 369 



WHAT THE MEN WRITE HOME 

''Three days ago our division took possession of these 
heights and dug itself in. Two days ago, early in the 
morning, we were attacked by an immensely superior 
English force, one brigade and two battalions, and 
were turned out of our positions. The fellows took 
five guns from us. It was a tremendous hand-to-hand 
fight. 

''How I escaped myself I am not clear. I then had 
to bring up supports on foot. My horse was wounded, 
and the others were too far in the rear. Then came up 
theguards jager battahon, fourth jager, sixth regiment, 
reserve regiment thirteen, and landwehr regiments 
thirteen and sixteen, and with the help of the artiUery 
we drove the fellows out of the position again. Our 
machine guns did excellent work; the English feU in 
heaps. 

"In our battahon three Iron Crosses have been 

given, one to CO., one to Captain , and one to 

Surgeon . [Names probably deleted.] Let us 

hope that we shall be the lucky ones next time. 

"During the first two days of the battle I had only 
one piece of bread and no water. I spent the night in 
the rain without my overcoat. The rest of my kit was 
on the horses which had been left behind with the 
baggage and which cannot come up into the battle 
because as soon as you put your nose up from behind 
cover the bullets whistle. 

"War is terrible. We are all hoping that a decisive 
battle will end the war, as our troops already have got 
round Paris. If we beat the EngHsh the French resist- 
ance will soon be broken. Russia wiU be very quickly 
dealt with; of this there is no doubt. 
370 



WHAT THE MEN WRITE HOME 

''Yesterday evening, about six, in the valley in which 
our reserves stood there was such a terrible cannonade 
that we saw nothing of the sky but a cloud of smoke. 
We had few casualties." 

THE COMMON ENEMY, DEATH 

How foe helps foe when the last grim hour comes is 
revealed in the letter which a French cavalry officer 
sent to his fiancee in Paris : 

''There are two other men lying near me, and I do 
not think there is much hope for them either. One is 
an officer of a Scottish regiment and the other a private 
in the Uhlans. They were struck down after me, and 
when I came to myself, I found them bending over me, 
rendering first aid. 

"The Britisher was pouring water down my throat 
from his flask, while the German was endeavoring to 
stanch my wound with an antiseptic preparation 
served out to them by their medical corps. The High- 
lander had one of his legs shattered, and the German 
had several pieces of shrapnel buried in his side. 

"In spite of their own sufferings they were trying 
to help me, and when I was fully conscious again the 
German gave us a morphia injection and took one 
himself. His medical corps had also provided him with 
the injection and the needle, together with printed 
instructions for its use. 

"After the injection, feeling wonderfully at ease, 
we spoke of the lives we had lived before the war. We 
all spoke English, and we talked of the women we had 
left at home. Both the German and the Britisher 
had only been married a year. ... 

371 



WHAT THE MEN WRITE HOME 

"I wonder, and I supposed the others did, why we 
had fought each other at all. I looked at the High- 
lander, who was falling to sleep, exhausted, and in spite 
of his drawn face and mud-stained uniform, he looked 
the embodiment of freedom. Then I thought of the 
Tri-color of France, and all that France had done for 
liberty. Then I watched the German, who had ceased 
to speak. He had taken a prayer book from his 
knapsack and was trying to read a service for soldiers 
wounded in battle." 

''same pair of blue eyes" 

Sergeant Gabriel David, of the French infantry, who 
saw seven months of continuous service in the trenches 
of the Argonne Forest, described the odd effect of 
peeping over the top of a trench for weeks into the 
same pair of German blue eyes. 

''I don't know who this man was or what he might 
have been," he said, ''but wherever I go I can yet see 
those sad-looking eyes. He and I gazed at each other 
for three weeks in one stretch; his watch seemed to 
always be the same as mine. We came to respect each 
other. I am sure that I would always know those blue 
eyes, and I would like to meet that man when the war 
has ended." 

FIGHTING WITHOUT HATE 

There is yet to appear an authentic letter from a 
private or officer on either side that contains a tithe of 
the virulence and bitterness shown in the statements 
and writings of many non-combatants. 

"One wonders," runs a letter of a British officer, 
372 



WHAT THE MEN WRITE HOME 

" when one sees a German face to face, is this really one 
of those devils who wrought such devastation — for 
devastation they have surely wrought. You can 
hardly believe it, for he seems much the same as other 
soldiers. I can assure you that out here there is none 
of that insensate hatred that one hears about. 

"Just to give you some idea of what I mean, the 
other night four German snipers were shot on our wire. 
The next night our men went out and brought one in 
who was near and get-at-able and buried him. They 
did it with just the same reverence and sadness as 
they do to our own dear fellows. I went to look at the 
grave the next morning, and one of the most uncouth- 
looking men in my company had placed a cross at the 
head of the grave, and had written on it: 

" 'Here lies a German. 
We don't know his name. 
For he died bravely fighting 
For his Fatherland.' 

"And under that, 'got mitt uns' (sic), that being 
the highest effort of all the men at German. Not bad 
for a bloodthirsty Briton, eh? Really that shows the 
spirit," 



373 



CHAPTER XXXIII 
BOMBARDING UNDEFENDED CITIES 

THE GERMAN RAID ON THE ENGLISH COAST 

MRS. KAUFFMAN's DESCRIPTION CANNONADING AT 

WHITBY FREAKISH EFFECT OF SHELLS FLIGHT OF 

SCHOOL CHILDREN. 

THE NINTH Hague Convention of 1907, to which 
both Germany and Great Britain gave their assent 
upon identical conditions, expressly forbids 'Hhe bom- 
bardment by naval forces of undefended ports, towns, 
villages, dwellings or buildings," and by inference 
requires notice to be given previous to any such opera- 
tions. Neither of these stipulations was observed by 
the German naval raiders who on December 16, 1914, 
bombarded the historic English towns of Hartlepool, 
Whitby and Scarborough. Appearing in the early 
morning, the Germans rained deadly shells upon these 
coast towns, none of which was of strategic importance, 
and only one protected by fortifications. The imme- 
diate result was the useless slaughter of many non- 
combatants — men and women and children, and the 
ruin of buildings, churches and historic monuments, 
including the ancient abbey of St. Hilda at Whitby. 

The raid on Scarborough was described by Ruth 
Kauffman, the wife of the novelist, Reginald Wright 
Kauffman, in an interesting communication. The 
374 



BOMBARDING UNDEFENDED CITIES 



Kauffmans had been living for several years just outside 
of Cloughton, a village near Scarborough. 

MRS. KAUFFMAN's DESCRIPTION 

''It's a very curious thing to watch a bombardment 
from your house. 

''Everybody knew the Kaiser w^ould do it. But 
there was a Httle doubt about the date, and then some- 




Where the War Was Brought Home to England. 

how the spy-hunting sport took up general attention. 
When the Kaiser did send his card it was quite as 
much of a surprise as most Christmas cards — from a 
friend forgotten. 

"Eighteen people were killed in the morning 
between eight and eight-thirty o'clock in the streets 
and houses of Scarborough by German shrapnel, two 
hundred were wounded and more than two hundred 
houses were damaged or demolished. 

"From our windows we could not quite make out the 

375^ 



BOMBARDING UNDEFENDED CITIES 

contours of the ruined castle, which is generally plainly- 
visible. Our attention was called to the fact that 
there was ''practicing" going on and we could at 8.07 
see quick flashes. That these flashes pointed directly 
at Scarborough we did not for a few moments compre- 
hend, then the fog slowly lifting, we saw a fog that 
was partly smoke. The castle grew into its place in 
the six miles distance. 

"It seemed for a moment that the eight-foot thick 
Norman walls tottered, but no, whatever tottered was 
behind the keep. Curiously enough, we could barely 
hear the cannonading, for the wind was keen in the 
opposite direction, yet we could, as the minutes crept 
by and the air cleared, see distinctly the flashes from 
the boats and the flashes in the city. 

''After about fifteen minutes there was a cessation, 
or perhaps a hesitation, that lasted two minutes; then 
the flashes continued. Ten minutes more and the 
boats began to move again. One cruiser disappeared 
from sight, sailing south by east. 

CANNONADING AT WHITBY 

"The other two rushed hke fast trains north again, 
close to our clifl's, and in another half hour we heard 
all too plainly the cannonading which had almost 
escaped our ears from Scarborough. We thought it 
was Robin Hood's Bay, as far north of us as Scarborough 
is south, but afterward we learned that the boats 
omitted this pretty red-roofed town and concentrated 
their remaining energy on Whitby, fifteen miles north; 
the wind blowing toward us brought us the vibrating 
boom. 
376 




Sekgeant O'Leary Capturing the Enemy's Position. 
At Cunichy, Lance-corporal Michael O'Leary was one of a party moving forward 
to storm the German barricades. When near the enemy he rushed to the front and 
himself killed five Germans who were holding the first barricade, and then went forward 
to the second when he killed three more of the enemy and took two others prisoners, 
thus practically capturing the enemy's position by himself. For this exploit Sergeant 
O'Leary was awarded the Victoria Cross. 




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BOMBARDING UNDEFENDED CITIES 

^'We drove to Scarborough. We had not gone one 
mile of the distance when we began to meet people 
coming in the opposite direction. A small white-faced 
boy in a milk cart that early every morning makes its 
Scarborough rounds showed us a piece of shell he had 
picked up, and said it had first struck a man a few 
yards from him and killed the man. A woman carrying 
a basket told us, with trembling lips, that men and 
women were lying about the streets dead. 

'^We did not meet a deserted city when we entered. 
The streets were thronging. There was a Sunday hush 
over everything, without the accompanying Sunday 
clothes, but people moved about or stood at their door- 
ways. Many of the shop fronts were boarded up and 
shop windows were empty of display. The main street, 
a narrow passage-way that clambers up from the sea and 
points due west, was filled with a procession that slowly 
marched down one side and up the other. People 
hardly spoke. They made room automatically for a 
group of silent Boy Scouts, who carried an unconscious 
woman past us to the hospital. There was the insistent 
honk of a motor-car. As it pushed its way through, all 
that struck me about the car was the set face of the 
old man rising above improvised bandages about 
his neck, part of the price of the Kaiser's Christmas 
card. 

''The damage to property did not first reach our 
attention. But as we walked down the main street 
and then up it with the procession we saw that shops 
and houses all along had windows smashed next to 
windows unhurt. At first we thought the broken 
windows were from concussion; but apparently very 

377 



BOMBARDING UNDEFENDED CITIES 

few were so broken; there was not much concussion, 
but the shells, splintering as they exploded, had flown 
red hot in every direction. The smoke, we had seen, 
had come from fires quickly extinguished. 

FREAKISH EFFECTS OF SHELLS 

"We left the main business street and picked our way 
toward the foreshore and the South Cliff, the more 
fashionable part of the town as well as the school 
section. Here there was a great deal of havoc, and 
we had to climb over some of the debris. Roofs were 
half torn off and balancing in mid-air; shells had shot 
through chimneys and some chimneys tottered, while 
several had merely round holes through the brick 
work; mortar, brick and glass lay about the streets; 
here a third-story room was baiC to the view, the wall 
lifted as for a child's doll house and disclosing a single 
bedroom with shaving materials on the bureau still 
secure; there a drug-store front lay fallen into the 
street, and the iron railing about it was torn and twisted 
out of shape. 

''A man and a boy had just been carried away dead. 
All around small pieces of iron rail and ripped asphalt 
lay scattered. Iron bars were driven into the wood- 
work of houses. There were great gaps in walls and 
roofs. The attack had not spent itself on any one 
section of the city, but had scattered itself in different 
wards. The freaks of the shells were as inexplicable 
as those of a great fire that destroys everj^thing in a 
house except a piano and a mantelpiece with its bric-a- 
brac, or a flood that carries away a log cabin and leaves 
a rosebush unharmed and blooming. 
378 



BOMBARDING UNDEFENDED CITIES 

''Silent pedestrians walked along and searched the 
ground for souvenirs, of which there were plenty. 
Sentries guarded houses and streets where it was 
dangerous to explore and park benches were used as 
barriers to the public. All the cabs were requisitioned 
to take away luggage and frightened inhabitants. 
During the shelling hundreds of women and children, 
breakfastless, their hair hanging, hatless and even 
penniless, except for their mere railway fares, had rushed 
to the station and taken tickets to the first safe town 
they could think of. There was no panic, these hatless, 
penniless women all asserted, when they arrived in 
York and Leeds. 

FLIGHT OF SCHOOL CHILDREN 

"A friend of mine hurried into Scarborough by 
motor to rescue her sister, who was a pupil at one of 
the boarding schools. But it appeared that when the 
windows of the school began to crash the teachers 
hurried from prayers, ordered the pupils to gather 
hats and coats and sweet chocolate that happened to 
be on hand as a substitute for breakfast and made them 
run for a mile and a half, with shells exploding about 
them, through the streets to the nearest out-of-Scarbor- 
ough railway station. My friend, after unbehevable 
difficulties, finally found her sister in a private house 
of a village near by, the girl in tears and pleading not 
to be sent to London; she had been told that her 
family's house was probably destroyed, as it was 
actually on the sea-coast." 



379 



CHAPTER XXXIV 
GERMANY'S FATAL WAR ZONE 

THE WARNING TO NEUTRAL NATIONS UNITED 

STATES REFUSED TO RECOGNIZE WAR ZONE ^A 

VIOLATION OF INTERNATIONAL RIGHTS ^AIMED AT 

NEUTRAL SHIPPING AN INHUMAN POLICY. 

THE GERMAN imperial decree making all of the 
waters surrounding the British Isles a war zone and 
threatening to destroy ships and crews found therein 
after February 18, 1915, whether they were English 
or neutral, raised a storm of protest in the United 
States. The decree read: 

''The waters around Great Britain and Ireland, 
including the whole English Channel, are declared a 
war zone from and after February 18, 1915. 

''Every enemy ship found in this war zone wiU be 
destroyed, even if it is impossible to avert dangers 
which threaten the crew and passengers. 

"Also, neutral ships in the war zone are in danger, 
as in consequence of the misuse of neutral flags. ordered 
by the British government on January 31 and in view 
of the hazards of naval warfare it cannot always be 
avoided that attacks meant for enemy ships shall 
endanger neutral ships. 

"Shipping northward, around the Shetland Islands, 
in the eastern basin of the North Sea, and in a strip 
380 



GERMANY'S FATAL WAR ZONE 

of at least thirty nautical miles in breadth along the 
Dutch coast, is endangered in the same way." 

As plainly as words could state it, this was a warning 
that American and other neutral vessels might be 
sunk by German submarines and that Germany would 
repudiate responsibility for such action. The American 
press denounced the declaration and its intent, and 
the United States government made public a note to 
Germany, containing the following paragraph: 

UNITED STATES REFUSED TO RECOGNIZE WAR ZONE 

'^If the commanders of German vessels of war 
should act upon the presumption that the flag of the 
United States was not being used in good faith and 
should destroy on the high seas an American vessel, 
or the lives of American citizens, it would be difficult 
for the government of the United States to view the 
act in any other light than as an indefensible violation 
of neutral rights which it would be very hard indeed 
to reconcile with the friendly relations now happily 
subsisting between the two governments." 

Frederick R. Coudert, of New York, an authority 
on international law, said in discussing the war zone: 

'^From the beginning the United States government 
always maintained the right to treat the open sea as 
a public highway, and refused to acquiesce in one 
attempt after another to establish a closed sea. It 
refused to submit to an imposition of the Sound dues 
by Denmark, or to recognize the Baltic as a closed 
sea. It refused to pay tribute to the Barbary 
powers for the privilege of navigating the Mediter- 
ranean, and gave notice to Russia that it would 

381 



GERMANY'S FATAL WAR ZONE 

disregard the claim to make the North Pacific a closed 
sea. 

A VIOLATION OF INTERNATIONAL RIGHTS 

"No one has ever pretended to assert a claim to 
control the navigation of the North Sea, and Germany 
has no more right to plant mines in the open sea 
between Great Britain and Belgium and France than 
she would have to do so in Delaware Bay, or than a 
property owner, who was annoyed by automobiles, 
would have to plant torpedoes in a turnpike. 

''The right to plant mines as a defense to a harbor, 
from which all vessels might lawfully be excluded, is 
one thing, but to destroy the use of the open sea as a 
highway, by sowing mines which might indeed destroy 
British ships, but might also destroy American ships, 
is an act of hostility which, if persisted in, would 
constitute a casus belli, and if we had Mr. Webster, 
or Mr. Marcey, or Mr. Evarts in Washington as Secre- 
tary of State, prompt notice would be given that for 
any damage done Germany would be held responsible." 

A representative quotation from the newspapers 
of the United States is the following: 

''The imperial decree making all of the waters sur- 
rounding the British isles a 'war zone,' and threatening 
to destroy ships and crews found therein after February 
18, whether they be English or neutral, is surely the 
maddest proposal ever put forth by a civilized nation. 

AIMED AT NEUTRAL SHIPPING 

"This excessively efficient method of warfare, how- 
ever, is one that most concerns England and France. 

•382 



GERMANY'S FATAL WAR ZONE 

The interest of the United States lies in the fact that 
the threat is aimed emphatically at neutral shipping. 

''Neutral nations were loath to accept the sinister 
meaning of the order when it was first published; but 
its intent was emphasized by Bismarck's old organ, 
the Hamburger Nachrichten : 

'' 'Beginning on February 18 everybody must take 
the consequences. The hate and envy of the whole 
world concern us not at all. If neutrals do not protect 
their flags against England, they do not deserve 
Germany's respect.' 

"The misuse of the American flag is annoying to this 
country as well as exasperating to Germany, but no 
government in its senses would seriously threaten to 
make that an excuse for piratical operations. A 
merchant ship has a right to fly any flag the skipper 
has in his locker, particularly if thereby he can deceive 
an enemy and evade capture. The custom is as old 
as maritime warfare, and has been resorted to number- 
less times by every nation. 

"But this issue is trifling compared to the German 
effort to exclude neutral shipping from an arbitrarily 
decreed 'war zone.' It is officially admitted that this 
does not comprise a formal blockade, but it is clear 
that Germany is attempting to achieve the benefits 
of a blockade without its heavy responsibilities. 

AN INHUMAN POLICY 

" It is understood that she has a perfect right to hold 
up and search neutral ships in her declared 'war zone,' 
and to make prizes of such as carry contraband. But 
it is the possession of this very right which forbids 

383 



GERMANY*S FATAL WAR ZONE 

the inhuman policy she proclaims. She cannot plead 
ignorance of a vessel's identity, or attack it unless it 
refuses to stop when signaled. The burden of proof 
is upon the submarine, and to torpedo a vessel on 
suspicion merely would be unredeemed piracy and 
murder. 

'^This is distinctly a case in which the convenient 
doctrine of 'military necessity' is not to be invoked. 
Nor would an occasional misuse of a neutral flag by 
belligerent vessels, as a ruse of war, justify a mistaken 
act of destruction. If every British merchantman 
approaching England flew the American colors, that 
would not excuse the torpedoing of one American ship. 

"These facts are stated with convincing clearness 
in the official protest sent from Washington to Berlin. 
We do not know who framed this document, although 
it bears distinct literary marks of revision by President 
Wilson. But whoever the men actually responsible 
for it, they produced a state paper which is a model 
of terseness, lucidity, dignified courtesy and force, 
an irrefutable presentation of the relevant principles 
of international law and justice. No loyal American 
wants trouble, but the blood of the most pacific citizen 
must move a little faster on reading the German decree 
and the restrained but perfectly straightforward reply 
sent by our government." 



384 



CHAPTER XXXV 
MULTITUDINOUS TRAGEDIES AT SEA 

TWENTY-NINE VESSELS SUNK IN ONE WEEK 

EIGHTY-TWO NON-COMBATANT VESSELS DESTROYED 

IN GERMAN WAR ZONE THE ATTACK ON THE 

GULFLIGHT. 

THE FACT that the Lusitania was the twenty-ninth 
vessel to be sunk or damaged in one week in May in the 
war zone established by Germany around the British 
Isles throws into grim relief the ruthlessness of modern 
war. The naval battles of the past were engagements 
of dignity in which, when a vessel was lost, it went down 
with a certain tragic magnificence after a fair fight; 
but most of the vessels lost in the European war have 
been the victims of torpedoes, struck by stealthy blows 
in the dark. In less than three months, from February 
18 to May 7, 1915, no less than eighty-two merchant 
vessels belonging either to the Allies or to neutral 
nations were torpedoed or mined in the war zone, with 
a loss of hfe estimated at 1,704 non-combatants — a 
terrible sacrifice to modern warfare. 

Naturally the greater number of these merchant ships 
were British, but the fact that the war zone was pro- 
claimed by Germany with a view to stopping neutral 
shipping as well is established by the figures which show 
that among the eighty-two non-combatant vessels 
25 385 



MULTITUDINOUS TRAGEDIES 

destroyed there were French, Russian, Norwegian, 
Swedish, Dutch, Danish, Greek and three American 
vessels, the latter being the Evelyn, sunk by a mine 
explosion February 20; the Carib, sunk by a mine 
explosion February 22, and the Gulflight, torpedoed 
May 1. 

In addition to these eighty-two cases of non-com- 
batant vessels destroyed, there have been innumerable 
instances of unsuccessful attacks, of which a notable 
example was the double attempt to sink the American 
tank steamship Gushing, once by a Zeppelin which 
aimed three bombs at the vessel, and once by a sub- 
marine which placed a contact mine directly in the path 
of the ship; her bow narrowly missed the mine, and 
her stern struck it a glancing blow, but not with suffi- 
cient force to explode it. 

THE ATTACK ON THE GULFLIGHT 

It would require many hundreds of pages to recount 
the details of all of these crimes against non-combatant 
merchant ships, and to show the relentless severity with 
which neutral commerce has been attacked, but the 
organized military measures even against neutral ships 
are well illustrated by the case of the American ship 
Gulflight, as described by the second officer, Paul 
Bower: 

''When the Gulflight left Port Arthur, Texas, on 
April 10, bound for Rouen, France," said Bower, "we 
were follov/ed by a warship of some description, which 
kept out of sight, but in touch by wireless and warned 
us not to disclose our position to any one. 

"At noon Saturday, May 1, we were twenty-five 
386 



MULTITUDINOUS TRAGEDIES 

miles west of the Scilly Islands, a small group about 
thirty miles southwest of England. The weather was 
hazy, but not thick. About two and one-half miles 
ahead I saw a submarine. 

''Twenty-five minutes later we were struck by a 




Where Lusitania Was Torpedoed. 
Kinsale, on South Coast of Ireland, close to Cork Harbor. 

torpedo on the starboard side, and there was a tremen- 
dous shock. The submarine had not reappeared on 
the surface before discharging the torpedo. 

''Previous to this, we had been met by two patrol 
boats, which accompanied us on either side. The boat 

387 



MULTITUDINOUS TRAGEDIES 

on our starboard side was so badly shaken by the 
explosion that her crew imagined that she also had been 
torpedoed. We immediately lowered the boats and 
left our ship and were quickly taken on board the patrol 
boats. But the fog increased and we drifted about all 
night and did not land at Scilly until 10.30 o'clock 
Sunday morning. 

'^At midnight of Saturday, while still on board the 
patrol boat, Captain Gunter summoned me. I found 
him in bed and he said he wanted some one to roll a 
cigarette for him. He then tossed up his arms and 
fainted. From then until the time of his death, which 
occurred about 3.30 o'clock Sunday morning, he 
remained unconscious. 

'^Captain Gunter's speech was thick and indistinct, 
but we could distinguish that he wished some one to 
take care of his wife. The crew had always regarded 
Captain Gunter as a healthy man and had never 
heard him complain." 

Second Assistant Engineer Crist, of the Gulflight, 
said: 

''I was on watch in the engine room when we were 
torpedoed, and so terrible was the blow that the Gulf- 
light seemed to be tumbling to pieces. She appeared 
to be lifted high in the air and then to descend rapidly. 
I told the boys to beat it as quickly as possible and 
shut the engines down. 

"Reaching the deck, I found them launching both 
hfe-boats. We got safely into them, with the excep- 
tion of wireless operator Short and a Spanish seaman, 
who had dived overboard when they felt the shock, and 
were drowned." 



CHAPTER XXXVI 
THE TERRIBLE DISTRESS OF POLAND 

A LONG-TORTUKED NATION AGAIN BLIGHTED BY 

WAR DESOLATION AND FAMINE THROUGHOUT 

LAND ^RICH AND POOR ALIKE DESTITUTE PLIGHT 

OF RUSSIAN POLAND NO BREAD FOR WEEKS IN 

LODZ THREE TIMES A BATTLE-FIELD UNABLE TO 

HELP HERSELF NO SEED AND NO DRAFT ANIMALS. 

'TF YOU imagined all the people of New York State 
deprived of everything they owned, left a prey to 
starvation and disease, and hopelessly crushed under 
the iron heels of contending armies, you might form a 
slight idea of what the Poles are enduring at present," 
declared the great pianist, Paderewski, while visiting 
America in 1915 in the interests of the afflicted nation. 
''One of the worst phases of the situation hes in the 
inability of the inhabitants of one-half of the country 
to communicate with those in the other. Compared 
with their lot, even that of the Belgians loses some of 
its horror, for my unhappy countrymen have no France, 
Holland, or England in which they can seek refuge." 
Girt by a ring of war, Poland in the winter and spring 
of 1915 was in the most terrible straits. Her cities 
and villages had been captured and recaptured by 
both Germans and Russians, her fields had been laid 
waste, and her inhabitants were slowly dying of 
starvation. 

389 



TERRIBLE DISTRESS IN POLAND 

DESOLATION AND FAMINE THROUGHOUT LAND 

"If figures can give any idea of the immensity of 
this disaster," pleaded the great musician, "then these 
may convey a sHght impression of what has gone on 
in Poland: An area equal in size to the states of 
Pennsylvania and New York has been laid waste. 
The mere money losses, due to the destruction of 
property and the means of agriculture and industry, 
are $2,500,000,000. A whole nation of 18,000,000 
people, including 2,000,000 Jews, are carrying the 
burden of the war in the east on their backs, and their 
backs are breaking under the load. The great majority 
of the whole PoHsh people, about 11,000,000 men, 
women and cliildren, peasants and workmen, have 
been driven into the open, their homes taken from 
them or burned, and they flee, terror-stricken, hungry 
and in confusion, whither they know not. In ruins, 
in woods or in hoUows they are hiding, feeding on roots 
and the bark of trees. It is Christian humanity that 
calls for help for succumbing Poland." 

"From the banks of the Niemen to the summits of 
the Carpathians," WTote the novelist, Henry k Sien- 
kiewicz, in his plea to the American people, "fire has 
destroyed the towns and villages, and over the whole 
of this huge, desolated country the specter of famine 
has spread its wings; all labor and industry have been 
swept away; the ploughshare is rusted; the peasant 
has neither grain nor cattle; the artisan is idle; all 
works and factories have been destroyed; the trades- 
mauk cannot sell his wares; the hearth fire is extin- 
guished, and disease and misery prevail. To such starv- 
ing people, crying out for aid, listen, Christian nations.'* 
390 



TERRIBLE DISTRESS IN POLAND 

All points within the sphere of the German offensive 
offered a picture of utter desolation. The people 
fled in horror before the advancing enemy, leaving 
their homes and their property to sure destruction. 
An uninterrupted line of arson fire shone on the sorrow- 
ful path of the exiles. Their fields have been devastated 
and furrowed by the trenches, their animals have 
been taken away, their savings have been wasted, 
and all their chattels destroyed. 

RICH AND POOR ALIKE DESTITUTE 

The Pohsh Relief Committee, headed by Madame 
Sembrich, pubfished this word from the great tenor, 
Jean de Reszke, whose home is in Paris: 

''My poor brother was unable to get away from the 
war zone in time. He wrote this letter several weeks 
ago, and now I fear he may never survive the terrible 
hardships. He had plenty of money and a splended 
estate, but all were swept away." 

The letter referred to shows that there is no leveler 
Hke war. It runs: 

''My dear brother, whether this will ever get through 
the lines and reach you I do not know. I am sure 
no man could get through ahve, with all this fighting 
and the continual bombardment going on on every hand. 

"The war broke with such suddenness that it was 
impossible to escape. I was forced to remain here on 
my estate in Garnesk. This part of Poland has been 
reduced to worse than a desert. All is desolate and 
every one is suffering. My beautiful estate has met 
the common fate and been reduced to ashes. I am 
now living in a cellar with scanty covering. If a 

391 



TERRIBLE DISTRESS IN POLAND 

shell should drop in it would afford no protection. So 
fierce has been the fighting here that there have been 
days when I could not venture forth. We have been 
between two fires. All Poland needs relief. 

"I have no coal, oil, coffee, and only a handful of 
grain left. Through the cold and the rain I have had 
but poor shelter, but my lot is the same as that of my 
fellow countrymen here. Every one is in want; every 
one is suffering. Many are dead, and many more will 
die unless aid reaches them soon. Prince Lukouirski 
and his wife recently reached here and are sharing my 
cellar with me. Their own beautiful estate has been 
destroyed, and even the cellar blown to atoms by the 
sheUs." 

PLIGHT OF RUSSIAN POLAND 

Mr. Herbert Corey, writing from Berlin to the New 
York Globe, in the spring of 1915, declared that unless 
something was done the world would be horrified — if 
the world had not lost its capacity for horror — by the 
sufferings of the Poles. ^'Soon cholera \vill come to 
Poland. Famine is there now. Scarlet fever and 
typhoid and smallpox and enteric and typhus are old 
settlers." The million now in utter want only live 
at all because '' humanity has a wonderful capacity 
for adjustment to wretchedness. 

''There are 6,000,000 Poles in the portion of Russian 
Poland that is being fought over. Of these, according 
to the Red Cross men, 1,000,000 are absolutely desti- 
tute. They are without food or the means to buy 
food. They are living on the charity of others who 
are but slightly better off. That charity must come 
392 



TERRIBLE DISTRESS IN POLAND 

to an end soon — because food is coming to an end. It 
is not merely that money is lacking. Flour is lacking. 
It must be imported or starvation follows. 

''Russian Poland is a conspicuous example of Russian 
rule. No measure of self-government is permitted the 
people. All governing officials are appointed from 
Petrograd. Lodz, for example, a city which contains 
from 500,000 to 750,000 people — all statistics in Poland 
are mere guesses — is ruled by a mayor and four assist- 
ants, all sent out from Russia. No city may expend 
more than $150, American money, for its own purposes, 
except permission is secured from Petrograd. That 
permission is rarely given. Petrograd needs the taxes 
that Lodz pays. When permission is given it is long 
delayed. Therefore, Lodz, a town as large as St. Louis, 
has unpaved streets that are ankle-deep in mud in 
winter and ankle-deep in dust in summer. It has a 
privately owned and paid fire department that responds 
only to calls from its own clients. Ninety per cent of its 
residents live in sties on streets that are mere stenches. 

''And yet Lodz is the second cotton-manufacturing 
town in Europe. It is excelled only by Manchester 
in its manufacturing totals. Isolated on the bleak 
plains of Poland, at a distance from a seaport, served 
by two railroads only, it is an anomaly in the com- 
mercial world. 

NO BREAD FOR WEEKS IN LODZ 

"For two weeks Lodz had no bread at aU. For 
months it has had no meat at all — so far as the poorer 
classes are concerned. During those two weeks the 
mass of the population lived on potatoes. 

39:1 



TERRIBLE DISTRESS IN POLAND 

''Conditions were slightly worse in Czenstochow, the 
second city in Russian Poland. Here 90,000 people 
live. It has no street-lights. It has no attempt 
at street-paving. It has no sewers. It has no city 
water. It has no pubhcly maintained fire department, 
though a few of the merchants have a department of 
their own. It is pre-middle-ages in everything — 
morals, discomfort, filth, darkness, disease, death-rate. 
Cholera is there aU the time. Most of its people exist 
in reeking hovels, smoke-filled when they can afford 
fires, wet and cold at other times. 

''As the towns grow smaller, conditions grow worse." 

THREE TIMES A BATTLE-FIELD 

If the war had not come, these people would have 
prospered after a fashion. Potatoes were plentiful, 
and they had few other wants. A woman earned 
thirty cents a day in the mills and a man three cents 
more. Children worked as soon as they were old 
enough. Sixty-five per cent are wholly illiterate. 
Then— 

"Russia struck at Germany. The German armies 
invaded Poland in retaliation. They swept almost to 
Warsaw — and an invading army sweeps fairly clean. 
There were some things left when they passed over. 
They were driven back, and the Russian armies covered 
this territory — and they gleaned what was left. Then 
the Russians were driven back — sacking as they went — 
and the Germans covered the ground once more. Three 
times unhappy Poland has been fought over. It had 
little at the beginning. It has nothing now. For 
months Poland has been starving, not merely going 
394 



TERRIBLE DISTRESS IN POLAND 

hungry. That is a commonplace of war. Poles have 
been dying because they cannot get food. 

UNABLE TO HELP HERSELF 

''Poland is quite unable to help herself. Most of 
the mills — probably all of the mills — are owned by 
Russian and German and French capitahsts. The 
banks are all branches of foreign institutions. These 
concerns are all conducted by resident managers. 
Some of the managers have — on their own responsi- 
bility — given their work people two and a half and three 
cents a day each for food. Some have added a trifle 
for the children also. But this has practically come to 
an end. The managers have exhausted their supply 
of cash. They cannot get more. There are no mails. 
The towns of Poland are each printing their own paper 
money — not by consent of the Russian bureaucrats, but 
in defiance of them — but this money circulates only 
within the town's borders. It is highly improbable 
it will ever be redeemed in real money. Meanwhile 
the price of food commodities has risen fifty per cent 
in two months. By the time this reaches America 
the prices may have doubled. 

NO SEED AND NO DRAFT ANIMALS 

''Conditions are slightly better in the agricultural 
sections. The farmers have no seed and no draft 
animals, it is true. But they have fairly good supplies 
of potatoes. Last year's potato-crop was an enormous 
one. 

"There is a Jewish question in every city of Poland. 
Where there is a Jewish question in Russia there are 

395 



TERRIBLE DISTRESS IN POLAND 

riots. There will be more rioting in Poland unless 
Providence intervenes. Russia has always confined 
her Jews to the pale. Being forced to make their 
living by trading, their naturally sharp wits have been 
whetted. Today they are — broadly speaking — owners 
of every shop in Poland. There may be Christian 
shopkeepers here and there. People who Imow Poland 
doubt it. 

"Beggars follow the stranger in the Polish cities. 
Some of them are mute. They only look at the stranger 
through hollow eyes and hold out skinny hands. Others 
are vociferous. They cling to the garments of the 
passer-by. They cry for aid in an uncouth dialect. 
They run out from darkened doorways. The man who 
gives is pursued by a cue of them." 



396 



CHAPTER XXXVII 

THE GHASTLY HAVOC WROUGHT BY 
THE AIR-DEMONS 

THE HORROR OF BOMB-DROPPING — ^ANTI-AIRCRAFT 

GUNS KINDS OF BOMBS STEEL DARTS "aRROW 

bullets" and aerial torpedoes ^MACHINE GUNS 

IN AIRCRAFT ^ACCURACY IN DROPPING BOMBS. 

TEN YEARS ago the dropping of bombs from bal- 
loons was still considered an illegitimate form of war- 
fare, involving danger to non-combatants, and was 
under the ban of the Geneva Convention. At the 
Hague Peace Conference the Germans refused to 
abstain from bomb-dropping, and other nations fol- 
lowed suit. According to the German conception 
of war, civiUans in the theater of operations must 
take their chance of being killed, but must not shoot 
back under pain of summary execution. The horrors 
v/hich this theory has added to war have proved only 
too real, but, so far as bomb-dropping is concerned, 
the reality has so far fallen short of anticipations. 
The great ZeppeUns, capable of carrying a ton of 
explosives, have practically been frightened out of 
the air by the new anti-aircraft guns; and, except 
for one instance at Antwerp, bomb-di'opping has been 
confined to aeroplanes. Now, in the first place, an 
aeroplane can carry only a Hmited weight of bombs — 

397 



GHASTLY HAVOC OF AIR-DEMONS 




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say, two hundred pounds; and in the second place, it 
is extraordinarily difficult to hit anything with them. 
If the airman could hover over his target and take 
deliberate aim, he might be more dangerous; as it 
is, the German airman finds a cathedral hardly a big 
enough mark. The British airmen, at Diisseldorf 
and Lake Constance, adopted a different plan from 
the Germans; instead of dropping bombs from a 
great height, they made a steep ''vol piqu6" down 
on to the target, turned sharply up again, and dropped 
the bomb at the moment when the plane was checked 
by the elevator. This plan is more dangerous, but 
affords a better chance of hitting. 

KINDS OF BOMBS 

Various kinds of bombs are used for dropping from 
aeroplanes. A simple pattern shown in Fig. 1 
consists of a thin spherical shell of steel, containing 
twelve pounds of tetranitranilin, which is an explosive 
more powerful than meHnite. The stem of the bomb, 
by which it is handled, has an external screw-thread, 
and carries a pair of vanes. While in the position 
shown, the bomb is harmless, but as it drops, the vanes 
screw themselves up to the top of the stem till they 
press against the stop. This, by means of a rod 
passing down the center of the stem, ''arms" or 
prepares the fuse seen at the bottom of the bomb, 
so that it acts at the slightest touch, even on the 
wing of another aeroplane. The fuse effects the 
explosion of the burster by means of a primer of azide 
of lead, which causes the tetranitranihn to detonate 
with great violence. The whole bomb weighs twenty- 

399 



GHASTLY HAVOC OF AIR-DEMONS 

two pounds, and an aeroplane usually carries six 
of them. 

The Italians, in their campaign in Tripoli, used 
similar bombs, but without the special device for 
rendering the fuse sensitive. These were not a suc- 
cess, as many of them failed to explode in the desert 
sand, and the Arabs used to collect them and throw 
them into the ItaUan trenches at night. 

STEEL DARTS 

The Taube aeroplanes, when they flew over Paris, 
used sometimes to drop steel darts pointed at one 
end and flattened and feathered at the other, as shown 
in Fig. 2. These were put up in boxes of a hundred, 
so that when the box was released from its hook, it 
turned over and released the darts. 

''arrow bullets" and aerial torpedoes 

The ''arrow bullet" shown in Fig. 3 is a French 
device; though weighing only three-quarters of an 
ounce, its peculiar shape enables it to acquire a high 
velocit}^, so that it will kill a man when dropped from 
a height of six hundred yards. An aerial torpedo 
carried by French aeroplanes for the destruction of 
Zeppelins is shown in Fig. 4; it contains a powerful 
charge of explosive and a fuse, to which the suspend- 
ing-wire is connected. When dropped on a Zeppelin, 
the needle-pointed torpedo pierces the envelope and 
gas-chamber, but the wooden cross is arrested and 
the sudden jerk on the suspending- wire sets the fuse 
in action, causing the certain destruction of the air- 
ship. The torpedo would be too dangerous to handle, 

400 



GHASTLY HAVOC OF AIR-DEMONS 

but the French have an ingenious device which ren- 
ders it perfectly safe until it is dropped. 

MACHINE GUNS IN AIRCRAFT 

Various attempts have been made to mount ma- 
chine guns on aeroplanes, but the operator, in his 
narrow seat, has hardly space to point a machine 
gun in any direction except straight to his front. 
The American Curtis machine gun exhibited at Olym- 
pia is the most efficient form yet produced, but at 
present the airman seems to prefer an automatic 
rifle. Even in the early days of the war. Sir John 
French was able to report that British airmen had 
disposed of no less than five of the enemy's aircraft 
with this weapon. 

The Zeppelins are well armed with machine guns, 
carrying one in each of the two cars, and one on top 
of the structure. Access is had to the latter by means 
of a shaft and ladder which passes up through the 
gas-chambers. 

ACCURACY IN DROPPING BOMBS 

The Zeppehns have elaborate bomb-dropping appa- 
ratus with which it should be theoretically possible 
to drop a bomb with great accuracy, but on the occa- 
sion when it was tried at Antwerp, the Germans met 
with no great success. The principle of the bomb- 
dropping device is as follows: A sort of camera, 
pointed vertically downwards, is used, and an ob- 
server notes the speed with which an object on the 
ground passes across the field, and the direction in 
which it appears to move. He then reads the height 

.6 'i<J^ 



GHASTLY HAVOC OF AIR-DEMONS 

of the airship from the barometer, which gives the 
time taken by the bomb to fall, say fifteen seconds for 
3,500 feet. He has now to calculate, from the data 
given by the camera-observation, the allowance to 
be made for speed and leeway for fifteen seconds of 









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Scene of Air Raid on England. 

Leigh, shown on the map, is only twenty-five miles from the British 
capital, and South End just five miles further on. The fleet of Zeppelins, 
or aeroplanes or both, it will be seen, got uncomfortably close to the British 
metropolis. 

fall, and to point his sighting-tube accordingly. The 
air-ship is steered to windward of the target, and at 
the moment when the target (say, the second funnel 
of a dreadnaught) appears on the cross wires, the 
nine hundred-pound bomb is dropped, and the ship 
goes to the bottom. 
402 



CHAPTER XXXVIII 

THE DEADLY SUBMARINE AND ITS 
STEALTHY DESTRUCTION 

NEW COMPLICATIONS IN NAVAL ATTACK ^ATTACK 

ON LINER DESCRIBED OPERATION OF TORPEDOES 

NETS TO TRAP SUBMARINES HOW CRAFT SUB- 
MERGE. 

WHAT IS the value of the submarine in war? Is it 
so great that aU our theories of naval attack and 
defense will have to be revised? Are the great battles 
of the future to be fought under water? Is a httle 
vessel of a few hundred tons to make the dreadnaught 
useless? German naval tactics in the present war 
have made these questions interesting alike to the 
expert, who has his answers to them, and to the lay- 
man, who is profoundly ignorant on the whole subject. 
Simon Lake, an inventor who has done much to 
bring the submarine to its present degree of efficiency, 
says that ''it is the first weapon which has a potential 
power to destroy an invading force, and also to prevent 
an invading force from leaving its own harbors or 
roadsteads, but which is itself useless for invading 
purposes." This is at once an exaltation and a Hm- 
itation of its effectiveness. Yet Captain Lake believes 
that it will be ''the most potent influence that has 
been conceived to bring about a permanent peace 
between maritime nations." 

403 



THE DEADLY SUBMARINE 

Heavy armament would have availed the Lusitania 
nothing, even if the vessel had been so equipped, 
declared Captain Lake. Even if the Cunarder had 
been bristling with guns from bow to stem, she could 
have done no damage to the under-water craft that 
attacked her. She was doomed when the submarine 
approached her. 

The submarine with its periscope three feet under 
water could not have been seen fifty feet distant from 
the hner's side, and the chances were she was 1,000 
yards distant. No shot from the vessel could have 
located her, though aimed by trained officers. 

ATTACK ON LINER DESCRIBED 

The scenes on both the vessel and the little submar- 
ine may be pictured from a theoretical description 
given by Captain Lake as follows: ''The great ship, 
knowing the lurking danger, is traveling at her best 
speed limit, changing the course from time to time 
in a zigzag manner. Waiting beneath the surface 
of the calm sea a big submarine, now said to be capable 
of discharging a torpedo at a distance of five miles, 
rolls idly in the underground swell. Her crew is 
sleeping or talking in the semi-fetid atmosphere that 
the compressed air tanks reheve from time to time. 
An officer sits with his eye glued to a periscope, which 
constantly revolves that he may discern the rising 
smoke of an approaching vessel. 

''On the deck of the Lusitania passengers are loll- 
ing in steamer chairs or leaning over the rails. They 
covertly fear attack, yet the horizon shows no sign 
of the impending calamity. 

404 



THE DEADLY SUBMARINE 

"Suddenly the submarine commander focuses his 
periscope upon a faint and hazy Hne on the horizon. 
Closely he watches it move. An electric signal is 
given and the submarine crew is in place. Another 
and the boat swings silently and slowly on its course 
diagonal to that of the approaching vessel. The 
electric engines turn without noise. 

''The vessels near each other. An order is trans- 
mitted from the conning tower to the forward com- 
partment of the submarine. The outside ports of 
two bow torpedo tubes are closed; compressed air 
drives out all water. Two inside ports are carefully 
opened and two one-ton torpedoes are lifted by means 
of chain tackle and swung carefully into the tubes. 
The inside ports are closed and the outside ports again 
opened. The air chamber between the torpedo and 
the breaches is filled with air compressed to nearly 
1,200 pounds to the square inch — nearly the force 
of exploding dynamite. 

''Both vessels are closing together at right angles. 
On the bigger one all is gayety and hope of early and 
safe arrival at port. On the submarine all are alert. 
The bow is carefully trained toward a direct line over 
which the ship must travel. The speed and distance 
are carefully gauged by trained officers. 

"The submarine sinks beneath the surface and men 
are stationed at the firing levers on each of the for- 
ward tubes. An officer stands with a watch in his 
hand, counting the seconds. A Httle bell tinkles 
over the lever man on the port or starboard side of 
the submarine. He pulls the lever which releases 
the trigger, and with a rush the enormous torpedo 

405 



THE DEADLY SUBMARINE 

forces itself in a direct line toward the vessel. Another 
second elapses and the bell rings again. Similar 
action is observed on the submarine, which a m^oment 
later rises with its periscope above the slight ripple 
of the water. 

'^ There is a deadening crash, as the shock is trans- 
mitted through the water and the resounding shell 
of the air-filled submarine. The officer at the submar- 
ine periscope, or conning tower, is the only living 
person on the submarine that sees a great vessel rise 
out of the water and slowly settle back. He knows 
that the shots have taken effect and he can offer no 
aid to the thousands who a moment later wiU be 
attempting to save their fives. He turns his bow 
homeward, or cruises for other victims of his mechani- 
cal ingenuity, as his sealed saifing orders may direct. 

OPERATION OF TORPEDOES 

''The course of the torpedo from the time it is 
released in the tube by the lever trip is interesting," 
said Captain Lake. ''These torpedoes are made at 
a cost of $5,000 each, much of which is spent in test- 
ing. With their high charge of explosive placed weU 
forward and a little plunger on the nose, connecting 
with a percussion cap, their interior presents the same 
view as that of a large steamship. The officer is a 
little gyroscope, impelled by compressed air. This in 
turn may be set from the outside to travel straight 
forward or on a curve, and by a timing device to change 
its course after a certain distance. UsuaUy it is set 
to travel straight beneath the water at a depth of 
about fifteen feet. 
406 



THE DEADLY SUBMARINE 

"To insure accuracy the torpedo without explosive 
charge must be fired many times from a fixed torpedo 
tube. It is finally inspected and passed. As it leaves 
the torpedo tube on its last journey the trip releases 
the compressed air which turns its turbine engine. 
That in turn revolves the propeller. The rudder, 
speed and depth of passage are actuated by the gyro- 
scope. 

''A torpedo has been fired accurately at a distance 
of five miles. The distance for accuracy is between 
fifty 3^ards and one thousand. Owing to the concussion 
on the ear-drums of those in a submarine the greatest 
distance compatible with accuracy is sought. As the 
plunger on the torpedo strikes the vessel it explodes 
the charge almost directly against the side of the 
vessel." 



407 



CHAPTER XXXIX 

THE TERRIBLE WORK OE ARTILLERY IN 

WAR 

SEVENTY PER CENT OF CASUALTIES DUE TO 

ARTILLERY FIRE INCREASED RANGE MODERN 

GUNS HOW A BIG GUN IS AIMED — AWFUL DE- 

STRUCTIVENESS OF MODERN GUNS. 

A FULL century ago, Napoleon the Great, himself an 
artillery officer, had developed the fighting power of 
artillery of his day so as to make its fire a dominant 
factor on the battle-field. In the present war its action 
is even more important, since we learn from the front 
that seventy per cent of the casualties are due to 
artillery fire. It was the gun that took Liege and 
Antwerp, and it is the gun which held the contend- 
ing armies pent up within a semicircle of fire. 
Once massed formations were abandoned, the gun 
lost its terrors to a great extent, and did not regain 
its place in military estimation till the introduction 
of the shrapnel shell. 

This is a hollow steel projectile, packed with bullets, 
and containing a charge of powder in the base. (See Fig. 
1.) It is exploded by a time-fuse, containing a ring 
of slowly burning composition which can be set so as 
to fire the powder during the flight of the shell, when 
it has traveled to within fifty yards of the enemy. 
The head is blown off, and the bullets are projected 
408 



TERRIBLE WORK OF ARTILLERY 

forward in a sheaf, spreading outwards as they go. 
The British eighteen-pounder shell covers a space of 
ground some three hundred yards long by thirty-five 
yards wide with its 365 heavy bullets. 

INCREASED RANGE 

In 1885 the British brought out the twelve-pounder 
high-velocity field-gun, which remained for some years 




FIC.I 



FIG.2 FIG.3 

Types of Shells 



PIG.4 



Fig. 1 . — Shrapnel ehell, packed with bullets that spread. Fig. 2. — A French 
quick-firer shell, like an enlarged rifle cartridge. Fig. 3 —The "Universal" 
shell, combining the action of shrapnel and high explosives. Fig. 4. — A fuse- 
setting machine. 

the best gun in Europe. Its power was afterwards 
increased by giving it a fifteen-pounder shell, and, as 
a fifteen-pounder, it did good work in South Africa. 
Then came another development, the quick-firing gun 

109 



TERRIBLE WORK OF ARTILLERY 

now being used in the war, with a steel shield to protect 
the detachment. The quick-firing gun is badly named; 
its high rate of fire is only incidental, and is rarely of 
use in the combat. The essential feature of the " Q.F. " 
gun, as it is generally styled, is that the carriage 
does not move on firing, so that the gunners can 
remain safely crouched behind the shield. 

MODERN GUNS 

The French gun as it was originally brought out has 
now been improved by the addition of a steel plate 
which closes the gap between the shields; and a steel 
shield is also provided to protect the officer standing on 
the upturned ammunition- wagon. 

The carriage does not move, and the men remain in 
their positions behind the shield while the gun recoils 
between them. The carriage is prevented from sharing 
the movement of recoil by the spade at the end of the 
trail, which digs into the ground so as to ''anchor" it. 

RAPID FIRING 

The gun-recoil carriage, as the new invention was 
called, increases the rate of fire, since there is no delay 
in running up. The French were quick to develop 
this new feature, and set to work to make the rate of 
fire as high as possible. Up till then the am_munition 
fired from a field-gun had consisted of a shell, a bag of 
powder, and a friction-tube introduced through the 
vent to fire the charge. This was called a round of 
ammunition, and its complexity was increased by the 
fuse, which was carried separately and screwed into the 
shell when the round was prepared for loading, and 
410 



TERRIBLE WORK OF ARTILLERY 

afterwards set with a key to burst the shell at the 
required distance. The French combined the whole 
of these separate parts into one, so that a round of 
** fixed" ammunition, as now used, looks exactly hke 
an enlarged rifle cartridge. (See Fig. 2.) 

Further, they did away with the cumbrous process 
of setting the fuse by hand, and introduced a machine 
which sets fuses as fast as the shell can be put into it. 
One of these machines is shown in Fig. 4. It is of a 
later pattern than that of the French service gun, being 
the one used by the Servians with their new gun made 
by the famous firm of Schneider of Creusot. The 
machine is set to the range ordered by the battery 
commander, the shell is dropped into it, and a turn 
of the handle sets the fuse. 

HOW A BIG GUN IS AIMED 

The independent line of sight is another modern 
device for facilitating the service of a gun. With this 
the gear for giving the gun the elevation necessary to 
carry a shell to the required distance is kept entirely 
separate from that used for pointing the gun at the 
target. The gun-layer has merely to keep his sighting 
telescope on the target, while another man puts on the 
range-elevation ordered by the battery commander. 

The result of all these improvements is that the best 
quick-firing guns (among which the French gun is still 
reckoned) are capable of firing twenty-five rounds a 
minute. The German field-gun is hardly capable of 
twenty rounds a minute, being an inferior weapon 
converted from the old breech-loader. 

But these high rates of fire are used only on emer- 

411 



TERRIBLE WORK OF ARTILLERY 

gency, as a gun firing twenty-five rounds a minute 
would exhaust the whole of the ammunition carried 
with it in the battery in three minutes. 

One of the first consequences of the introduction of 
the shielded gun was the reappearance of the old com- 
mon shell in an improved form. The common shell is 
almost as old as Agincourt, and consisted simply of a 
hollow shell filled with powder, which exploded on 
striking the object. When shrapnel came into use most 
nations abandoned the common shell. But shrapnel 
proved almost ineffective against the shielded gun, and 
the gunners were indifferent to the bullets pattering on 
the steel shield in front of them. The answer to this 
was the high-explosive shell, a steel case filled with 
high explosive, such as melinite, which is the same as 
lyddite, shimose, or picric acid. This, when detonated 
upon striking a gun, can be relied upon to disable it and 
to kill the gunners behind it. 

AWFUL DESTRUCTIVENESS OF MODERN GUNS 

Of late years a shell which combines the action of 
the shrapnel and the high-explosive shell has been 
introduced. This is the ''Universal" shell (see Fig. 3) 
invented by Major van Essen, of the Dutch Artillery. 
It is a shrapnel with a detachable head filled with high 
explosive. When burst during flight it acts Hke an 
ordinary shrapnel, and the bullets fly forward and 
sweep the ground in front of it; at the same time the 
head, with its explosive burster, flies forward and acts 
as a small but efficient high-explosive shell. These 
projectiles have been introduced for howitzers and for 
anti-aircraft guns, and some of the nations with new 
■il2 



TERRIBLE WORK OF ARTILLERY 

equipments, such as the Balkan States, have them for 
their field-guns. Their introduction has, however, 
been delayed in Western Europe, as they are less 
efficient as such than the ordinary shrapnel, which *s 
considered the principal field artillery projectile. 



413 



CHAPTER XL 

WHOLESALE DEATH BY POISONOUS 
GASES 

CANADIAN VICTIMS TRENCH GAS AT YPRES 

AWFUL FORM OF SCIENTIFIC TORTURE REPORT OF 

MEDICAL EXPERT KIND OF GAS EMPLOYED 

ALLIES FORCED TO USE SIMILAR METHODS. 

KILLING by noxious gases may be, as the Germans 
claim, no more barbarous than slaughter by shrapnel, 
but it has been denounced in America as a violation 
of all written and unwritten codes and as a backward 
step toward savagery. Certainly the descriptions of 
responsible persons who have witnessed the pernicious 
work of the gas only deepens the horror with which 
all peace-loving citizens look upon ''civilized" war- 
fare. 

The following description of the effect is told by a 
responsible British officer who visited some Canadians 
who were disabled by gas: 

''The whole of England and the civilized world 
ought to have the truth fully brought before them 
in vivid detail, and not wrapped up as at present. 
When we got to the hospital we had no difficulty in 
finding out in which ward the men were, as the noise 
of the poor devils trying to get breath was sufficient 
to direct us. 



WHOLESALE DEATH BY GASES 



CANADIAN VICTIMS 

''There were about twenty of the worst cases in the 
ward, on mattresses, all more or less in a sitting position, 
strapped up against the walls. Their faces, arms, and 
hands were of a shiny, gray-black color. With their 
mouths open and leaden-glazed eyes, all were swaying 
slightly backward and forward trying to get breath. 
It was a most appalling sight. All these poor black 
faces struggling for Hfe, the groaning and the noise of 
the efforts for breath was awful. 

''There was practically nothing to be done for them 
except to give them salt and water and try to make 
them sick. The effect the gas has is to fill the lungs 
with a watery frothy matter, which gradually increases 
and rises until it fills up the whole lungs and comes to 
the mouth — then they die. It is suffocation, slow 
drowning, taking in most cases one or two days. Eight 
died last night out of twenty I saw, and the most of the 
others I saw will die, while those who get over the gas 
invariably develop acute pneumonia. 

"It is without doubt the most awful form of scientific 
torture. Not one of the men I saw in the hospital 
had a scratch or v^^ound. The Germans have given out 
that it is a rapid, painless death — the hars. No torture 
could be worse than to give them a dose of their own 
gas." 

"trench gas" at ypres 

Asphyxiating gases seem to have been first used by 
the Germans in the fighting around Ypres in April, 
1915. The strong northeast wind, which was blowing 
from the German Hnes across the French trenches, 

415' 



VCHOLESALE DEATH BY GASES 

became charged with a sickening, suffocating odor 
which was recognized as proceeding from some form 
of poisonous gas. The smoke moved hke a vivid green 
wall some four feet in height for several hundred yards, 
extending to within two hundred yards of the extreme 
left of the Allies' lines. Gradually it rose higher and 
obscured the view from the level. 

Soon strange cries were heard, and through the 
green mist, now growing thinner and patchy, there 
came a mass of dazed, reeling men who fell as they 
passed through the ranks. The greater number were 
unwounded, but they bore upon their faces the marks 
of agony. 

The retiring men were among the first soldiers of 
the world whose sang-froid and courage have been 
proverbial throughout the war. All were reeling 
like drunken men. 

AWFUL FORM OF SCIENTIFIC TORTURE 

''The work of sending out the vapor was done from 
the advanced German trenches. Men garbed in a 
dress resembling the harness of a diver and armed with 
retorts or generators about three feet high and con- 
nected with ordinary hose-pipe turned the vapor loose 
toward the French lines. Some witnesses maintain 
that the Germans sprayed the earth before the 
trenches with a fluid which, being ignited, sent up 
the fumes. The German troops, who followed up this 
advantage with a direct attack, held inspirators in 
their mouths, these preventing them from being over- 
come by the fumes. 

In addition to this, the Germans appear to have 
416 



WHOLESALE DEATH BY GASES 



fired ordinary explosive shells loaded with some chem- 
ical which had a paralyzing effect on all the men in the 
region of the explosion. Some chemical in the composi- 




Right-hand figure: British soldier 
wearing respirator with air valve on top. 



Left-hand figure: German with res- 
pirator and goggles armed with burning- 
oil-distributor. 

Using Deadly Gas as a Weapon in War. 

The German use of poisonous gases that asphyxiate soldiers of the enemy 
against whom they are directed, has made it necessary to devise a new de- 
fense. The pictures show the devices used by those who direct the use of the 
gases and those who have to meet their deadly vapors. 

tion of these shells produced violent watering of the 
eyes, so that the men overcome by them were practically 
blinded for some hours. 

The effect of the noxious trench-gas seems to be 

27 417 



WHOLESALE DEATH BY GASES 



slow in wearing away. The men come out of their 
violent nausea in a state of utter collapse. How 
many of the men left unconscious in the trenches when 
the French broke died from the fumes it is impossible 
to say, since those trenches were at once occupied by 
the Germans. 

REPORT OF MEDICAL EXPERT 

Dr. John S. Haldane, an authority on the physiology 
of respiration, who was sent by the British government 
to France to observe the effect of the gases, examined 
several Canadians who had been incapacitated by the 
gases. 

''These men," he said, ''were lying struggling for 
breath, and blue in the face. On examining their 
blood with a spectroscope and by other means I ascer- 
tained that the blueness was not due to the presence 
of any abnormal pigment. There was nothing to 
account for the blueness and their struggles for air but 
one fact, and that was that they were suffering from 
acute bronchitis, such as is caused by the inhalation 
of an irritant gas. Their statements were to the effect 
that when in the trenches they had been overwhelmed 
by an irritant gas produced in front of the German 
trenches and carried toward them by a gentle breeze. 

"One of the men died shortly after our arrival. A 
post-mortem examination showed that death was due 
to acute bronchitis and its secondary effect. There 
was no doubt that the bronchitis and accompanying 
slow asphyxiation was due to irritant gas. 

•'Captain Bertram, of the eighth Canadian battahon, 
who is suffering from the effects of gas and from wounds, 
418 



WHOLESALE DEATH BY GASES 

says that from a support trench about six hundred 
yards from the German Hnes he observed the gas. He 
saw first of all white smoke rising from the German 
trenches to a height of about three feet. Then in 
front of the white smoke appeared a green cloud which 
drifted along the ground to our trenches, not rising 
more than about seven feet from the ground. 

''When it reached our first trenches, the men in these 
trenches were obliged to leave, and a number of them 
were killed by the effects of the gas. We made a 
counter-attack about fifteen minutes after the gas 
came over, and saw twenty-four men lying dead from 
the effects of the gas on a small stretch of road leading 
from the advanced trenches to the supports. He, 
himself, was much affected by the gas, and felt as 
though he could not breathe. 

"These symptoms and other facts so far ascertained 
point to the use by the German troops of chlorine or 
bromide for the purpose of asphyxiation. There also 
are facts pointing to the use in German shells of other 
irritant substances. Still, the last of these agents are 
not of the same brutality and barbarous character as 
was the gas used in the attack on the Canadians. 

''The effects are not those of any of the ordinary 
products of combustion of explosives. On this point 
the symptoms described left not the shghtest doubt in 
my mind." 

KIND OF GAS EMPLOYED 

Various have been the opinions of chemists as to the 
kind of gas employed. Sir James Dewar, President of 
the Royal Institution, was of the opinion that it was 

419 



WHOLESALE DEATH BY GASES 

liquid chlorine. Dr. F. A. Mason, of the Royal College 
of Science, considered it to have been bromine. Dr. 
Crocker, of the South-Western Polytechnic, said it 
may have been either carbon monoxide or liquid 
peroxide. Dr. W. J. Pope, Professor of Chemistry, 
Cambridge, and Sir E. Rutherford, Professor of Physics, 
Manchester University, agreed in thinking the gas to 
have been phosgene, a compound of carbon monoxide 
and chlorine, largely used in dye production in Ger- 
many. 

'Tor some years," stated Sir James Dewar, '^ Ger- 
many has been manufacturing chlorine in tremendous 
quantities. . . . The Germans undoubtedly have hun- 
dreds of tons available. If several tons of liquid are 
allowed to escape into the atmosphere, where it imme- 
diately evaporates and forms a yellow gas, and if the 
wind is bloT\dng in a favorable direction, it is the easiest 
thing for the Germans to inundate the country with 
poison for miles ahead of them. 

''The fact that the gas is three times heavier than 
air makes escape from its disastrous effects almost 
impossible, for it drifts like a thick fog-cloud along the 
surface of the ground, overwhelming all whom it 
overtakes." 

ALLIES FORCED TO USE SIMILAR METHODS 

Of the German attack on the alhed front near Ypres, 
Secretary of War, Earl Kitchener, speaking in the 
House of Lords on May 18, said: 

"In this attack the enemy employed vast quantities 
of poisonous gases, and our soldiers and our French 
allies were utterly unprepared for this diabolical 

420 



WHOLESALE DEATH BY GASES 

method of attack, which undoubtedly had been long 
and carefully prepared." 

It was at this point that Earl Kitchener announced 
the determination of the Allies to resort to similar 
methods of warfare. 

''The Germans," said Earl Kitchener, ''have per- 
sisted in the use of these asphyxiating gases whenever 
the wind favored or other opportunity occurred, and 
His Majesty's government, no less than the French 
government, feel that our troops must be adequately 
protected by the employment of similar methods, so as 
to remove the enormous and unjustifiable disadvantage 
which must exist for them if we take no steps to meet 
on his own ground the enemy who is responsible for 
the introduction of this pernicious practice." 



421 



CHAPTER XLI 

"USAGES OF WAR ON LAND": THE 
OFFICIAL GERMAN MANUAL 

CRIMES IN BELGIUM EXPLAINED BY INSTRUC- 
TIONS TO GERMAN OFFICERS UNLIMITED DES- 
TRUCTION THE END OF WAR RULES OF CIVILIZED 

WARFARE CLEARLY STATED OTHER EXCELLENT 

RULES. 

THE BLACK crime of Louvain, the world-lamented 
destruction of the cathedral of Rhgims, the denudation 
of the fair land of Belgium, with all its horrible attend- 
ant crimes, is explained, in part at least, by ''Usages 
of War on Land," the official manual of instructions 
to military officers compiled by the general staff of 
the German army. It is an authoritative exposition 
of the rules of war as practiced by the Germans. 

Two general principles bearing directly on the 
question of the invasion of Belgium are clearly stated 
in this guide: 

''A war conducted with energy cannot be directed 
merely against the combatants of the enemy state 
and the positions they occupy, but it will and must in 
Uke manner seek to destroy the total intellectual 
and material resources of the latter. Humanitarian 
claims, such as the protection of men and their goods, 
can only be taken into consideration in so far as the 
nature and object of the war permit. 
422 



USAGES OF WAR ON LAND 

''The fact that such hmitations of the unrestricted 
and reckless appHcation of all the available means 
for the conduct of war, and thereby the humanization 
of the customary methods of pursuing war, really 
exist, and are actually observed by the armies of all 
civilized states, has in the course of the nineteenth 
century often led to attempts to develop, to extend, 
and thus to make universally binding these pre- 
existing usages of war; to elevate them to the level 
of laws binding nations and armies; in other words, 
to create a law of war. All these attempts have hither- 
to, with some few exceptions to be mentioned later, 
completely failed. If, therefore, in the follo\\ing 
work the expression ' the law of war ' is used, it must be 
understood that by it is meant not a written law 
introduced by the international agreements, but only 
a reciprocity of mutual agreement — a limitation of 
arbitrary behavior, which custom and conventionality, 
human friendliness and a calculating egotism have 
erected, but for the observance of which there exists 
no express sanction, but only 'the fear of reprisals' 
decides. " 

UNLIMITED DESTRUCTION THE END OF WAR 

Put in plain language, these passages mean that 
there is no law of war which may not be broken at the 
dictates of interest. Unlimited destruction is the 
end, and only fear of reprisals need limit the means. 
The sentimental humanitarianism and flabby emotion 
which prevail elsewhere have no place in the bright 
lexicon of the German officer. "By steeping himself 
in military history," the manual clearly states, "an 

423 



USAGES OF WAR ON LAND 

officer will be able to guard himself against excessive 
humanitarian notions" and learn that "certain sever- 
ities are indispensable in war," and that "the only- 
true humanity often lies in a ruthless application of 
them." Then there is laid do\\Ti this comprehensive 
general rule: 

"All means of warfare may be used without which 
the purpose of war cannot be achieved. On the other 
hand, every act of violence and destruction which is 
not demanded by the purpose of war must be con- 
demned. " 

Interpreted by other passages in the volume, this 
implies that the end justifies the means. Barbarities 
may be forgiven if only they are useful. Thus "inter- 
national law is in no way opposed to the exploitation 
of the crimes of third parties — assassination, incen- 
diarism, robbery and the like — to the prejudice of 
the enemy." 

RULES OF CIVILIZED WARFARE CLEARLY STATED 

It must not be assumed, of course, that the German 
war manual is a defense of unlimited rapine. The 
rules of civilized warfare are usually stated clearly 
enough. But there are so many exceptions to the 
application of them that a zealous officer might well 
be pardoned if he regarded them as not binding when- 
ever it was to his interest to ignore them. Thus, 
after a careful statement of the right of the inhabit- 
ants of an invaded country to organize for its defense, 
the advantages of "terrorism" are candidly set 
forth as outweighing these considerations in many 
instances. That policy has been illustrated in Belgium 
424 



USAGES OF WAR ON LAND 

very significantly. The difference between precept 
and practice is also seen in the prohibition of the bom- 
bardment of churches and unfortified towns. Re- 
garding the latter the manual says: 

''A prohibition by international law of the bom- 
bardment of open towns and villages which are not 
occupied by the enemy or defended was, indeed, put 
into words by The Hague regulations, but appears 
superfluous, since modern military history knows of 
hardly any such case." 

Mihtary history has been made since then, partic- 
ularly by the German air raids on English seashore 
resorts. 

OTHER EXCELLENT RULES 

Several other excellent rules in the manual may be 
contrasted with German practice in the present war, 

"No damage, not even the smallest, must be done 
unless it is done for military reasons. 

"Contributions of war are sums of money which 
are levied by force from the people of an occupied 
country. They differ in character from requisitions 
in kind because they do not serve an immediate 
requirement of the army. Hence, requisitions in 
cash are only in the rarest cases justified by the 
necessities of war. 

"The military government by the army of occupa- 
tion carries with it only a temporary right to enjoy 
the property of others. It must, therefore, avoid every 
purposeless injury, it has no right to sell or dispose 
of the property." 

"Usages of War on Land" makes interesting read- 

425 



USAGES OF WAR ON LAND 

ing throughout, though the conclusions that the im- 
partial reader will draw from it will not be in every case 
those which the German military authorities would 
have him draw. 



426 



CHAPTER XLII 

THE SACRIFICE OF THE HORSE IN 
WARFARE 

DUMB ANIMALS PRESSED INTO SERVICE — PART 
PLAYED BY HORSE IN WAR — AMERICAN STOCK 
DEPLETED. 

SO OVERWHELMING has been thel thought of 
human suffering in Europe, so anxious has the world 
been to reheve it, that Httle thought has been bestowed 
on the dumb sufferers. Various war photographs have 
shown us the novel sight of the dogs of Belgium im- 
pressed into service for dragging the smaller guns; but 
all contestants use horses, and when we reflect that the 
average life of a cavalry horse at the front is not more 
than a week, if that, we gain some idea of the sacrifice 
of animals which modern warfare demands. 

One of the pleaders for the horse is John Galsworthy, 
the English novelist, who gives in the London Westmin- 
ster Gazette this moral aspect of the use of the horse 
in warfare, with the attendant obUgation: 

"Man has only a certain capacity for feeling, and 
that has been strained almost to breaking-point by 
human needs. But now that the wants of our wounded 
are being seen to with hundreds of motor ambulances 
and hospitals fully equipped, now that the situation 
is more in hand, we can surely turn a little to the com- 
panions of man. They, poor things, have no option 

427 



THE SACRIFICE OF THE HORSE 

in this business; they had no responsibility, however 
remote and indirect, for its inception; get no benefit 
out of it of any kind whatever; know none of the sus- 
taining sentiments of heroism; feel no satisfaction in 
duty done. They do not even — as the prayer for them 
untruly says — ^offer their guileless lives for the well- 
being of their countries.' They know nothing of 
countries; they do not offer themselves. Nothing so 
little pitiable as that. They are pressed into this 
service, which cuts them down before their time." 

PART PLAYED BY HORSE IN WAR 

The horse still plays an important part in war, as 
every army service corps officer who has had anything 
to do with them well knows. The men love their 
mettlesome beasts, and much trouble and worry is 
pardoned and lost sight of in the comradeship which 
arises between man and beast. The great part played 
by motors and motor-driven vehicles in the present 
war has tended to draw attention away from the work 
of horses at the front, yet motor cavalry has not been 
evolved. While recognizing that for moving big guns 
along a well-made road motor power is very valuable, it 
is still equally true that once the roads are left it is 
found in practice of little use. 

A remarkable feature of the European war, new, 
so far as we know, to military experience, has been the 
use upon an extensive scale of the heavy draught horse, 
whose stately pace admits of no hurrying, but whose 
great strength permits of his hauUng very heavy weights 
where the nature of the road does not admit of the use 
of the motor. 
428 



THE SACRIFICE OF THE HORSE 

AMERICAN STOCK DEPLETED 

That the European war threatened to deplete the 
stock of horses even in the United States is emphasized 
by a careful computation which fixed at 185,023 the 
number of horses shipped to the warring nations from 
July 1, 1914, to March 31, 1915. The value of the 
animals, according to an inventory compiled from the 
manifests of ships transporting the horses is placed at 
$40,695,057. During that same period 26,976 mules, 
valued at $5,143,270, were sent abroad. 

Buyers representing the British, French and Russian 
governments were reported as searching the country 
for more, and, according to estimates made by shippers, 
at least 120,000 animals were to be shipped to Europe 
during the summer of 1915. 

Frank L. Neall, statistician, asserted that few persons 
realized the extent of the raid made by European 
buyers on the horse market. "Shipments," he said, 
"have been made from New Orleans, Newport News, 
Portland, Boston and New York. During the month 
of March, 33,694 horses were shipped, representing a 
value of $8,088,974." 

Shippers were deeply interested when it became 
known for a certainty that the German government 
had representatives purchasing horses in the West. 
Wood Brothers, the largest horse dealers in Nebraska, 
were asked to bid on a 25,000-head shipment. Ruling 
prices for the grade of horses desired by foreign buyers 
have ranged from $175 to $200 per head. 

The stockyards in New Orleans, where these animals 
were assembled, cover about eight acres and shed 3,500 
animals. Horses were thoroughly examined as to 

429 



THE SACRIFICE OF THE HORSE 

their fitness for service, both at the point of purchase 
and at New Orleans. 

The last step before placing the horses on shipboard 
was to adjust special halters to them, so that, as in the 
case of many horses purchased by France, it was only 
necessary, when the animal reached the other side, to 
snap two straps to his head-stalls and make him instantly 
ready to be hitched to a gun limber or a wagon of a 
transport train. 



430 



CHAPTER XXXIV 

SCOURGES THAT FOLLOW IN THE WAKE 
OF BATTLE 

THE COMMON ENEMY, DISEASE — SCOURGES OF MOD- 
ERN WARFARE — RAVAGES OF TYPHUS IN SERVIA — 
NO WORD OF COMPLAINT — AMERICA TO THE RESCUE 

IN MANY campaigns of the past, disease has slain 
its thousands where bullets and shells have killed 
hundreds, and even the twentieth century with its 
marvelous science of sanitation has not defeated the 
direful common enemies of allies and foes. Why 
disease should attack masses of men in the prime of 
life, living in the open air, and on the whole well fed 
and clothed, at first sight seems strange, but when we 
remember that modern fighting begets an intolerable 
thirst, which the soldier is naturally tempted to slake 
as best he can and when he can, at least one reason is 
not hard to find. 

All modern armies, since the striking experience of 
Japan in the Manchurian campaign, pay special 
attention to the drinking water, and with good 
results. But an irremovable source of disease remains 
in the typhus-carrying vermin, in the myriads of flies 
bred in the rotting carcases of men and horses and in 
th filth that inevitably collects around perpetually 
shifting camps and bivouacs. As everyone now knows, 

431 



SCOURGES IN WAKE OF BATTLE 

these insects are ceaseless and tireless carriers of 
infection, and it is difficult to see how, under conditions 
of war, the plague of them can be utterly wiped out. 

SCOURGES OF MODERN WARFARE 

Of the diseases which assail an army in the field, 
a few stand out so prominently that all others may 
practically be neglected. These are cholera, typhus, 
tj^phoid fever, dysentery, and pneumonia; and they 
have this in common, that they are all caused by 
specific bacilli. Thus cholera is the child, so to speak, 
of the dreaded vibrio, and pneumonia that of the 
pneumococcus; while typhus, typhoid and dysentery 
have each their own special microbe. The modes of 
attack are, however, different, for the pneumococcus 
can enter the organism by the nose and mouth only; 
typhoid and dysentery through the alimentary canal; 
while the way in which cholera is propagated is at 
present unknown. All have this in common, that 
while the microbes causing them are probably always 
present — that of cholera being a doubtful exception — 
they seem only to assault a subject previously weakened 
by exposure, bad food, or intemperance. 

RAVAGES OF TYPHUS IN SERVIA 

The dread aftermaths of war made their first visita- 
tions upon the Servian nation. One read with dismay 
that Belgium was later outdone by Poland, and Poland 
seemed almost fortunate beside Servia. The account 
sent by Captain E. N. Bennett, Commissioner in 
Servia for the British Red Cross Society, of the condi- 
tions prevailing in Servian hospitals and prisoners' 
432 



SCOURGES IN WAKE OF BATTLE 

camps filled the whole world with dread. ''Fires are 
needed to clear Servia of typhus, just as fires were 
needed to stop the great plague in London," reported 
Sir Thomas Lipton, who spent considerable time in 
that country. He said: 

''I met on the country roads many victims too weak 
to crawl to a hospital. Bullock-carts were gathering 
them up. Often a woman and her children were 
leading the bullocks, while in the car the husband and 
father was raving with fever. Scarcely enough people 
remain unstricken to dig graves for the dead, whose 
bodies lie exposed in the cemeteries. 

''The situation is entirely beyond the control of the 
present force, which imperatively needs all the help 
it can get — tents, hospitals, doctors, nurses, modern 
appliances, and clothing to replace the garments full 
of typhus-bearing vermin." 

His picture of the hospital at Ghevgheh, where Dr. 
James F. Donnelly, of the American Red Cross, died, 
is appalhng. Sir Thomas called Dr. Donnelly one of 
the greatest heroes of the war: 

"The place is a village in a barren, uncultivated 
country, the hospital an old tobacco factory, formerly 
belonging to Abdul Hamid. In it were crowded 1,400 
persons, without blankets or mattresses, or eveu straw — 
men lying in the clothes in which they had lived in the 
trenches for months, clothes swarming with vermin, 
victims of different diseases, typhus, typhoid, dysen- 
tery, and smallpox were herded together. In such a 
state Dr. Donnelly found the hospital, where he had a 
force of six American doctors, twelve American nurses, 
and three Servian doctors. When I visited the hospital 

433 



SCOURGES IN WAKE OF BATTLE 

three of the American doctors, the three Servian 
doctors, and nine of the nurses were themselves iU. 

''The patients were waited on by Austrian prisoners. 
The fumes of illness were unbearable. The patients 
objected to the windows being opened, and Dr. Don- 
nelly was forced to break the panes. The first thing 
Dr. Donnelly did on his arrival was to test the water, 
which he found infected. He then improvised boilers 
of oil-drums, in which to boil water for use. The 
boilers saved five hundred lives, said Dr. Donnelly. 
He also built ovens in which to bake the clothes of the 
patients, but he was not provided with proper steriliz- 
ing apparatus. 

NO WORD OF COMPLAINl 

"No braver people exist than the Servians. They 
have never a word of complaint. In one ward I saw 
a fever patient, his magnificent voice booming songs 
to cheer his comrades. Some were in a delirium, calling 
for 'mother.' 

"One source of infection is the army black bread, 
which is the only ration of the troops. The patients 
in the hospital receive only a loaf each, which they 
put in their bed or under their pillow. Later the 
unused loaves are bought by pedlers and are resold, 
spreading disease among the people, who are mediaeval 
in so far as sanitation is concerned. A Servian soldier 
receives a rifle, some hand-grenades, and perhaps part 
of a uniform, but otherwise looks after himself. 

"The street-cleaning and hospital- waiting are done 
by Austrians, who are rapidly thinning from typhus 
and other diseases. 
434 



SCOURGES IN WAKE OF BATTLE 

AMEEICA TO THE RESCUE 

"The best hospital in the Balkans is at Belgrade, 
under Dr. Edward W. Ryan, of the American contin- 
gent, where there are 2,900 patients. Dr. Ryan kept 
the hospital neutral during the Austrian occupation, 
and accompUshed wonders diplomatically at that time. 
He is worshiped by the people. 

''Dr. Ryan says that the greatest task is to keep 
the hospital free from vermin. The typhus affects 
men the most severely. Women come next, and chil- 
dren for the most part recover. The symptoms begin 
like those of grip. The disease lasts fifteen days, with 
fever and dehrium." 

In the spring of 1915, a large sanitary commission 
was organized by the American Red Cross and the 
Rockefeller Foundation, each of these organizations 
donating $25,000 to the prosecution of the work. 
The commission included a group of distinguished 
bacteriologists and physicians, among them William 
C. Gorgas, surgeon-general of the U. S. A. An initial 
supply of 10,000 anti-cholera treatments was carried 
to Servia by the commission, for there was danger not 
only of a spread of typhus but also of an outbreak of 
Asiatic cholera or some other infectious disease that 
might sweep across all Europe. Heavy indeed is the 
price of warfare. 



435 



CHAPTER XLIV 

WAR'S REPAIR SHOP: CARING FOR THE 
WOUNDED 

EFFICIENCY OF THE EED CROSS SERVICE THE 

BANDAGING CAMP THE SANITATION COMPANY 

THE HOSPITAL BARGE. 

AMID THE dreadful welter of carnage and its attendant 
agony which spells modern warfare one ray of brightness 
appears in the universal gloom in the shape of the 
highly organized efficiency of the Red Cross Service, 
which waits upon battle. Die Umschau, of Berlin, 
printed an admirable description of its activities 
from the pen of Professor Rupprecht, one of the chief 
organizers of the German Military Hospital Service, 
of which we give an abstract : 

''The stretcher-bearers of the infantry — four to each 
company — who bear the Red Cross symbol on the arm, 
when a battle is on hand, gather at the end of the 
battalion (sixteen men with four stretchers) and then 
proceed to the Infantry Sanitation Car. As soon as the 
'bandaging camp' is made ready . . . they go to the 
front with stretchers and knapsacks in order to be 
ready to give aid to the wounded as soon as possible. 
Musicians and others are employed as assistant 
stretcher-bearers. These wear a red band on the 
sleeve but do not come under the provisions of the 
Geneva Treaty." 
436 



WAR'S REPAIR SHOP 



THE BANDAGING CAMP 

Similar arrangements are made for the cavalry. 
The so-called '^bandaging camp" is for the purpose of 
gathering the wounded and examining and classifying 
them. It should be both protected and accessible, 
and if possible near a water supply. At the end of a 
battle it is the duty of the troops to search trenches, 
woods, houses, etc., for the wounded, protect them 




QmcKER AND Easier Than Bandages: The "Tabloid" Adjustable 
Head-Dressing. 

This dressing for head-wounds in the form of a cap, can be applied in a 
few seconds, and remains comfortably in position. It can be washed, ster- 
ilized, and used repeatedly. The diagrams show the method of adjusting 
and the dressing in position. 



against plunderers and carry them to the bandaging 
camp, as also to bury the dead. 

''At the bandaging camp the surgeons and their 
assistants must revive and examine the men and make 
them ready for transport. Operations are seldom 
practicable or necessary here. The chief concern is to 
bandage wounds of bones, joints, and arteries care- 
fully. . . . Severe hemorrhages usually stop of 
themselves, on which account it is seldom desirable 

437 



WAR'S REPAIR SHOP 



to bind the limb tightly above the wound. The wound 
itself must never be touched, washed, or probed. After 
the clothing is removed or cut away it must merely be 
covered with the contents of the bandage package." 

Every soldier carries two of these packages in a 
pocket on the lower front corner of his left coat-tail. 
Each package contains a gauze bandage enclosed in a 
waterproof cover. There is sewed to this bandage a 
gauze compress saturated with sublimate and of a red 
color. It is so arranged that the bandage can be 
taken hold of with both hands without touching the 
red compress. 

It is strongly impressed upon the stretcher-bearers 
and all assistants that cases having wounds in the 
abdomen are not transportable and must on no account 
be given food or drink; also that bleeding usually 
stops of itself. They are taught, too, that touching, 
washing, or probing the wound is injurious, and that 
only dry bandages must be placed on the wound — 
never those that are damp or impervious. 

'^The wounded who are capable of marching leave 
their ammunition, except for a few cartridges, at the 
bandaging camp, are provided if need be with a simple 
protective bandage, and march first to the nearest 
'camp for the slightly V\^ounded,' or to the nearest 
'resting-camp.' The rest of the wounded are removed 
as soon as possible directly to the field hospitals or 
lazarets. If obhged to remain for a while before 
removal they are protected by portable tents, wind- 
screens, etc. ... If it is impossible to carry the 
wounded along in a retreat they are left in care of the 
hospital staff under the protection of the Red Cross." 
438 



WAR'S REPAIR SHOP 



THE SANITATION COMPANY 

In case of a big battle a sanitation company remains 
near the bandaging camp. Every army corps has 
three of these companies, which, together with the 
twelve field lazarets of the corps, form a sanitation 
battalion. 

As soon as it is apparent that the troops will remain 
in one locality for some length of time the smaller 
bandaging camps or stations are supplemented by a 
chief bandaging station some distance in the rear, and 
if possible, near a highway and near houses. At this 
spot there are arranged places for the entry and exit of 
the wagons carrying the wounded, for the unloading 
of the wounded, for the dying and the dead, for cooking, 
and a ''park" for wagons and horses. 

Each field lazaret is capable of caring for two hundred 
men, but this capacity may be extended by making 
use of local aid. The supplies carried are very compre- 
hensive, including tents, straw mattresses and woolen 
blankets, Ughting materials, clothing and linen, tools, 
cooking utensils, soap, writing materials, drugs and 
medical appliances, sterilization ovens, bandages, instru- 
ments, and an operating-table. As fast as possible 
the patients treated are sent home on furlough or 
removed to permanent military hospitals. The very 
perfection of this system but deepens the tragic irony 
that occasions it. 

THE HOSPITAL BARGE 

One very important development in the care for the 
wounded is the introduction of the hospital barge. 
The rivers and canals of France offer splendid oppor- 

489 



WAR'S REPAiR SHOP 

tunities for conveying wounded from point to point. 
This new method of transport was foreshadowed in an 
article in the London Times, in which the writer, in 
describing the hospital barges, said: 

''The north of France, as is well known, is exceedingly 
rich in waterways — rivers and canals. The four great 
rivers, the Oise, the Somme, the Sambre, and the 
Escaut (Scheldt), are connected by a network of 
canals — quiet and comfortable waterways at present 
almost free of traffic. So far as the reaching of any 
particular spot is concerned these waterways may be 
said to be ubiquitous. They extend, too, right into 
Belgium, and have connection with the coast at various 
points — for example, Ostend. Here, then, is a system 
of 'roads' for the removal of the wounded, a system 
which, if properly used, can be made to relieve greatly 
the stress of work imposed upon the ambulance motor 
cars and trains. Here also is the ideal method of 
removal. 

"The He de France is lying at present at the Quai 
de Grenelle, near the Eiffel Tower. This is a Seine 
barge of the usual size and type, blunt-nosed, heavily 
and roomily built. You enter the hold by a step- 
ladder, which is part of the hospital equipment. This 
is a large chamber not much less high from floor to 
ceiling than an ordinary room, well lighted, and ven- 
tilated by means of skylights. The walls of the hold 
have been painted white; the floor has been thoroughly 
scrubbed out for the reception of beds, of which some 
forty to fifty will be accommodated. 

"The forward portion of the barge can accommodate 
more beds, and there is no reason why a portion of it 
d40 



WAR'S REPAIR SHOP 



should not be walled in and used as an operating room, 
more especially since in the bow a useful washing 
apparatus is fitted. The barge is heated by stoves, 
and a small electric plant could easily be installed. 
The barges are used in groups of four, and a small tug 
supplies the motive power. In favorable circumstances 
about fifty kilometers a day can be traveled." 

The barges employed are big, roomy barges one hun- 
dred and twenty feet long, sixteen feet broad, and ten 
feet high. Care is taken to use only fairly new and 
clean barges which have been used in the conveyance 
of timber or stone or other clean and harmless cargoes. 






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